The link to the original photo is here.

Did you ride the Expo Line to the USC game this past weekend? If so, you were one of what Metro estimates to be the approximately 8,000 fans who chose to train their way to the game.

Moreover, Metro calculates that at least half of those fans took other Metro buses or trains to connect with the Expo Line. Steve Hymon writes at The Source, “there were about 22,000 boardings on Metro on Saturday related to the game.”

If those figures are accurate, then about 8.5 percent of the 93,607 game attendees arrived via the Expo Line.

On a day when we’ve thrown a few eggs at Metro, it is nice to have some good news.

What is hard to know is whether or not these were riders that drove most of the way and then took transit for the last stretch. Or, whether these were riders that wouldn’t have driven to the game anyways. On game days, it is not unusual to see hordes of cardinal-and-gold clad folks downtown, walking their way south from hotels or waiting at stops for the Dash or another southward-bound bus. The Expo Line, in those cases, would be the new transit drug of choice, not the converter of car-bound fans.

That said, 8,000 riders is a high enough number that it seems plausible to think the new service has won over some fans. In order to figure it out, I’ll be speaking with Expo Line riders at the next home game (Sept. 22) to learn more about more about their transit choices.