As Metro wraps up a yearlong review of its service, the transit agency is reporting two major wins: a sharp drop in crime and a steady rise in ridership.
As Metro wraps up a yearlong review of its service, the transit agency is reporting two major wins: a sharp drop in crime and a steady rise in ridership.
According to Metro’s newly released FY2025 Annual Service Excellence Report, crime across the system fell by 43% between June 2024 and June 2025. The biggest drop was in car thefts at stations, which were down nearly 60%. Larceny cases fell by 33%, while robbery and assault each dropped by more than 20%.
This continues a downward trend that began in 2023, with overall crime now down 50% compared to two years ago.
Metro credits the improvement to several key efforts, which include more visible police and staff on trains and platforms, expanded use of surveillance cameras to solve cases and data-driven deployment of officers. Crisis intervention teams also played a role, helping to de-escalate more than 30,000 situations involving individuals in crisis.
Also last year, Metro introduced new fare gates aimed at preventing fare evasion on trains. Combined with stepped-up fare enforcement, including nearly 20,000 enforcement actions, these efforts are being credited for declining crime rates.
Ridership on the upswing
Meanwhile, ridership is on the rise, partially fueled by the return-to-office push in the D.C. area. Metro recorded 264 million trips over the past fiscal year, which is a 9% increase.
The report also provides a look at Metrorail’s new “Tap. Ride. Go” system, which allows riders to pay a fare by tapping a credit card at the fare gate. Early numbers for the payment system, which was rolled out in May, show it was used for 7% of weekday trips and 13% of weekend trips.
This year, Metro also implemented automatic train control on all lines, and since the switch was flipped on, the agency said the system is shaving an average of 51 seconds off each trip.
Some of the areas Metro looks to improve include bus system reliability, with buses being twice as likely to be late than early to a stop. Metro said the afternoon rush hour played a big role in that, but so did a bus driver shortage. Metro plans to address the shortage by hiring 560 bus operators in the coming months.
While seeing a rise in the use of the MetroAccess system for users with disabilities, the agency also saw satisfaction among users drop from 84% to 78%. Metro said the transition to a new contracting model used last year is to blame for the drop in on-time performance for MetroAccess. It has added a new provider to the mix to help meet demand.
Metro said the number of riders dissatisfied with safety on the rail system is also going down, from 17% last year to 9% this year. On buses, that number is down from 15% to 13%.
The report will be presented to Metro’s board during a meeting on Sept. 11.
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