Saturday, July 25, 2026

Metro Board Advances a Voting Seat for the Riders Who Fill Local Trains and Buses

Supervisor Janice Hahn’s motion passed unanimously, but the new seat still needs approval from lawmakers in Sacramento

For decades, the board that runs the light-rail trains and buses through Pasadena and Altadena has set fares, schedules and service without a single guaranteed seat for the people who actually ride them. On Thursday, that began to change.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors voted unanimously to move toward a dedicated voting seat for an everyday transit rider. The change still needs approval from state lawmakers before it can take effect, and it advanced alongside a separate, competing proposal leaving the board’s final shape unsettled.

The stakes are local. Pasadena sits on the Metro A Line, with six stations from Fillmore to Sierra Madre Villa, and Metro’s buses and Metro Micro service reach into both Pasadena and Altadena. 

The add-a-seat-for-the-riders motion was authored by County Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-authored by Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval. It directs Metro staff to work with the agency’s community advisory councils, community-based organizations and other stakeholders on a process for selecting the rider, then report back.

“This isn’t about replacing anyone’s voice,” Hahn said in a statement released by her office. “It’s about adding a perspective we don’t currently have.”

Metro’s board now has 13 voting members: the five county supervisors, the mayor of Los Angeles and three of her appointees, and four regional representatives plus one non-voting member named by the governor. None is required to ride transit. Because the board’s makeup is set in the state Public Utilities Code, any change must also pass in Sacramento.

The rider seat did not advance alone. A separate motion from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass passed 12-1, according to LAist; it would reserve one of the mayor’s appointee seats for a rider or advocate and add a 14th voting rider member. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath cast the lone dissent, saying the board should instead guarantee a seat for the county’s incoming elected chief executive.

An earlier version of Hahn’s motion had also proposed a dedicated seat for small cities, but she moved during Thursday’s meeting to refer that idea back to the board’s Ad Hoc Board Composition Committee. The debate follows Measure G, which expands the county Board of Supervisors from five members to nine by 2032.

Advocates backed the change. “People closest to the problems are closest to the solutions,” said Alfonso Directo Jr., advocacy director for ACT-LA, in a statement, adding that bus riders “deserve a direct say on how Metro runs transit.” Eli Lipmen, executive director of Move LA, said riders have “served and successfully led transit boards,” citing Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, a former BART board member, and Fred Neal Jr., who chaired the New Orleans RTA for eight years. The motion, Lipmen said, is “a huge step forward for Metro.”

Hahn pledged to ride Metro more often when she became board chair in 2024, and she continues to take the J Line monthly to meetings experiences she says have made her a better director.

For now, the trains still run through Pasadena and the buses still turn through Altadena governed by a board of officials, none of whom must buy a fare to sit on it. Whether that changes is a question that now travels to Sacramento.