Commuters boarded the LA Metro in droves as World Cup madness swept through SoCal

May was a great month for LA Metro. Then the World Cup came, and crowds of fans came to the stadiums to watch the events.

After a jump in ridership last month, the numbers for early June show Metro's ridership is up. As for the experience of taking public transportation in LA during a difficult time, the reviews are mixed.

“The trip is impossible,” said Ignacio Santa Cruz, who traveled to Los Angeles from Asuncion, Paraguay, to see his national team play the US on Friday.

“I mean, to go everywhere, you can expect at least a 45-minute ride,” he said.

Gary Mackenzie, on the other hand, told The Times on Saturday during the FIFA Fan Festival at the LA Memorial Coliseum that “the streets here compared to home are really crazy, man.” Mackenzie is from Scotland, where drivers use the left side of the road.

He thought about “renting a car” but decided against it, and “I'm so glad I did. … I definitely use public transport, which was fine.”

Last month, the opening of the long-awaited D Line extension near Wilshire Boulevard combined with the LA County Fair, concerts at the Kia Forum and events at the LA County Museum of Art to send ridership numbers shooting to the highest Metro has seen in six years. The D Line extension added about 8,000 to 10,000 more passengers per day. Year-on-year, ridership increased by 9.5%, Metro said.

It is not yet clear what the outcome of the World Cup will be for this transport organization, which cooperates with FIFA. But this organization shares good news.

Metro saw an increase in ridership for the World Cup and around some parties watching the US-Paraguay game last week. At the Exposition Park stop, a stop on the USC Metro E line, there was a 598% increase in total ridership on Friday, compared to a normal day. On the A line, at the Memorial Park stop in Pasadena, near the Pasadena Civic Center viewing party on Friday, there was a 7% increase in fare gate taps.

Metro also highlighted the lack of “security issues” during the World Cup, saying it was helped by the increased number of law enforcement and security personnel.

Metro has deployed “active and visible uniformed personnel of the Metro Department of Public Safety,” LA Metro spokeswoman Maya Pogoda said in an email. LA Police, Sheriff's Department and security officials and transit agency agents are deployed throughout the program, Pogoda said.

“We are pleased that there have been no security issues with our enhanced services for the World Cup, and there have been no increased security issues in our regular system since the World Cup began,” said Pogoda.

With LA set to host the Olympics in two years, there has been widespread concern about the city's ability to move people on public transit during the sporting event.

During the World Cup, Conan Cheung, the chief operating officer of LA Metro, told The Times earlier this year that the goal was to keep our system accessible. The way we organize the whole program is to ensure that we support people from the moment they decide to come to LA to play the World Cup.

For many The Times spoke to who attended the games in this area, avoiding LA traffic and cars was important to them.

At SoFi Stadium, parking costs up to $300 per car during the World Cup, on top of already high ticket prices. For many, fuel prices were also a problem.

On Monday at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, many of those in line told The Times they used Metrolink to catch a game-day bus to SoFi Stadium in Union Station.

For Friday's game between the US and Paraguay, 18,541 people used bus services provided by Metro and its partners from 15 locations across Southern California to the stadium. On Monday, in the match between Iran and New Zealand, 26,206 206 did so, according to the agency, a jump of 41.3% over the previous game.

“Since the Olympics and Paralympics will come to our region in two years, the World Cup service was a good opportunity to prepare to transport many fans at the same time,” said Metro.

But not everyone was using the Metro's transportation options to get to the games.

Andrew Rori Moore from Palmerston North, a town on the North Island of New Zealand, told The Times, he and his friend decided to walk and cycle everywhere.

“We've just done a little bit of Uber so far and a little bit of walking everywhere,” Moore said. “It's been so easy, it's been great.”