The embrace comes in stages for the people of the L train, if it comes at all.

There were the new cars, twinkling beneath Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, and the countdown clocks that could, in real time, communicate an evening’s captivity to the line’s fickle whims.

“Somewhere between love and hate,” one rider, Jane Kwett, wrote on the review website Yelp, “runs a train named L.”

Yet with each passing year, the reality has shifted, even if perception has been slow to catch up.

According to data to be released this week by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, ridership on the L increased at every station last year, and the authority has added service during both rush hours and off-peak periods in a bid to keep up with wide-scale population growth. More trains will be added in June.

Occasionally, the L has found itself in the unusual position of being praised.

It is the only line in the system that uses an advanced signaling system known as communications-based train control, and the only lettered line with the countdown clocks.