LA Metro points to World Cup operations as example of event-driven ridership recovery

Ray Sosep, chief planning officer at LA Metro, told the Select Committee on Downtown Recovery that major events can drive downtown activity and help rebuild ridership when agencies provide tailored, high‑quality service.

"For the World Cup... the number of people moving throughout Union Station was almost 400,000 throughout that period," Sosep said, describing a mix of point-to-point park-and-ride shuttles, branded signage, wayfinding and staff deployed to guide riders. He said Metro carried, on average, about one‑third of event attendees on some matches and that in some cases the agency carried up to half of attendees for the most popular matches.

Sosep emphasized that success required coordination with municipalities, traffic control and other transit partners, plus a strong outreach and marketing effort. He credited dedicated customer-service staff and heat-mitigation measures at park-and-ride sites for preserving rider comfort during the summer event window, and said the agency saw spill-over benefits: promoters and performers are requesting additional events at Union Station and Metro intends to build on partnerships that supported the fan zone.

Why it matters: Sosep framed event-focused service as both a short-term ridership lever and a long-term strategy to change perceptions about transit for non-commute trips. Committee members asked whether Metro would expand late-night and off-peak service to sustain those gains.

What’s next: Metro seeks funding and operational capacity to scale event service and to replicate the customer-experience practices it used during the World Cup.