LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Ridership on Metro's system grew 13% in August compared to the same time last year. with more than 25 million boardings, the transit agency announced Friday.

Metro's monthly bus and rail ridership is now at 79% of its 2019 pre- pandemic levels; average ridership is now at 75% of pre-pandemic levels; average weekend ridership is now at 75% of pre-pandemic levels and 79.5% for average weekends.

In August, Metro had approximately 25,124,083 boardings. An average of 889,573 riders were taken each weekday, with weekend boardings averaging 663,475 on Saturday and 502,501on Sunday.

August marked the second full month of operation for the newly reconfigured A and E Lines, as a result of the opening of the Regional Connector in June. The connector consolidated three of Metro's legacy rail lines, the A (Blue), E (Expo) and L (Gold) Lines, into two.

The A Line serves customers from Azusa to Long Beach while the E Line services customers from East LA to Santa Monica. The project also opened three new stations in downtown L.A.

During the month of August, ridership on the A and E Lines rose 28% on the weekdays compared to the combined riders ship of the A, E and L lines in August 2022. Ridership on weekends for those three lines rose over 45% compared to the same time last year.

Since April, Metro has focused on safety, which seems to have resulted in a 54% decrease in crime across the system and an increase in ridership.

On the B (Red) and D (Purple) Lines, ridership in August rose both on the weekdays and weekends by 5%, and rose 4% on the weekends compared to August 2022.  Those two lines saw an average of 74,157 trips during the weekdays and an average of 65,011 trips during the weekends.

Metro cites its increase in ridership in part to special events such as Taylor Swift's Eras Concerts and Hard Summer Music Festival. Swift fans were able to take the K and C Lines with service directly to SoFi Stadium. Attendees of the Hard Summer Music Festival used Metro's B, D and E Lines to get to their event.

Bus ridership increased by 12% year-over-year in August, according to Metro. More than 19.5 million riders were taken on Metro's buses, with total bus ridership at 79% of its pre-pandemic levels.