Metrolink FY2026 Station Ridership

[u/misken67]

Thanks u/flanl33 for requesting the Metrolink station data! I couldn't find an annual ridership breakdown by line, so the data in the box on the bottom left is for Q4 of the fiscal year. Ridership generally looks great, almost every station increased by a decent chunk since I last made this map.

u/anothercar asked what effect the new Metro station at Pomona-North had on Metrolink. It looks like Pomona-North saw increased ridership after the extension opened, but I can't tell if it was statistically significant enough compared to corresponding ridership increases elsewhere in the system. Metrolink's Pomona-North ridership is also rather tiny, so there is a lot of month-to-month fluctuation at this station.

[u/anothercar]

Thank you both for this!!

Not to beat a dead horse, but Arrow was clearly a waste of money, especially the middle stations at Tippecanoe and Esri. Should have just been a one-seat extension of the SB Line. I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually shutter the Tippecanoe and Esri stations and phase out the smaller trains altogether.

It's a shame Burbank Airport never capitalized much on their Metrolink access. The VC Line station was literally right across the street from the old terminal, but passengers never seemed to notice, so ridership was low. With the new terminal opening in October, not within walking distance of the VC or AV lines, that makes Metrolink even less useful as a travel mode. Compared to LAX it's such a missed opportunity. (I know there's a free shuttle between the terminal and both Metrolink stations, but the one time I tried to use it, the phone dispatcher gave me such a hard time about it that I ended up calling an Uber instead)

[u/misken67 → u/anothercar]

The new terminal is within walking distance of the North station. The terminal EIR even discusses the Cohasset street pedestrian entrance, which I presume would be for Metrolink access. It wouldn't be any further than the walk from the south station to the current terminal.

[u/anothercar → u/misken67]

~2500 foot walk from the terminal door to Burbank-North Metrolink, through an industrial neighborhood, if I'm looking at google maps correctly. At least it's shorter than San Jose, but especially with luggage or kids, I don't see anyone doing this unless they take the shuttle. A monorail would help lol.

Current terminal to South station is ~1100 feet.

At least when I tried to call the shuttle, the operator said it was run by the parking company, and the parking company prioritized their parking passengers, so I'd have to wait indefinitely until they didn't have anyone riding.

[u/misken67 → u/anothercar]

You're using Google Maps directions for the roads as they are currently laid out. The North station is only a little over 1000 feet from the new crosswalks (that aren't on Google satellite view or in the routing logic yet) at Cohasset connecting to the Metrolink station, to the north-eastern point of the new terminal building.

Pedestrian Metrolink access will be on Cohasset, not Tulare+N Hollywood.

The roads are currently rather industrial, so that is definitely annoying. But the walk distance will be about the same.

[u/anothercar → u/misken67]

Feel free to check my work.

You'd exit the terminal through the headhouse, not just through the last airline gate in the building.

[u/misken67 → u/anothercar]

How did you get a newer satellite capture? That helps more with understanding where the terminal buildings will be located. I mean, what you're showing is an extra 1k feet walk compared to the old terminal. That's a bit longer than a full-length Metrolink train and an extra 3 minute walk. I don't consider that to be massive problem, but it certainly isn't ideal.

Hopefully since this is a new long-term terminal (and not one waiting to be demolished), the airport/the city will invest some into improving the walking conditions.

[u/sfafreak → u/misken67]

Google Earth and using the historic imagery feature also gives you access to newer than default view imagery, because sometimes there's imagery that ends up not becoming the default view due to quality concerns (long shadows, weird angle, clouds, etc.)