Los Angeles’s Transit System Grapples With Public Safety Emergency Amid Escalating Violence

Drug abuse, mental illness, and repeat offenders plaguing L.A.’s trains and buses.

Riders await an LA Metro rail train in Los Angeles on April 10, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

LOS ANGELES—Following a spate of shockingly violent attacks on Metro buses and trains in recent weeks, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority—better known as Metro—is expediting plans to retrofit its entire fleet of buses with shatter-proof glass compartments to protect drivers, while increasing other safety and surveillance measures.

John M. Ellis, general chairman of  a union representing 5,000 Metro train and bus operators, said the April 25 approval came after “countless hurdles.”