Albuquerque Bus Ridership slowly rebounds in 2025 but remains depressed

With the start of 2026 the Rio Grande Foundation requested data on the City of Albuquerque’s bus system ridership. That data along with numbers going back to 2016 are shown on the chart below. As the Rio Grande Foundation has noted, the system has been “free” for several years now and numbers continue to rebound somewhat from the COVID pandemic, but when considered over the past decade, ridership remains depressed having decreased by more than 25 percent since 2016.

Ridership WAS up 5.86 percent from 2024 to 2025, but taxpayer-funded “free” buses have obviously done little to move the needle as other transit systems like the New Mexico RailRunner Express have also continued to rebound somewhat from the COVID-era, but remain well below pre-COVID levels.