List of United States Light Rail systems by ridership
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a list of all light rail systems in the United States, ranked by ridership. All figures are average weekday unlinked passenger trips, unless otherwise noted, and come from the American Public Transit Association's Ridership Reports Statistics<ref name="APTA">APTA Ridership Reports Statistics: http://www.apta.com/research/stats/ridership/riderep/indexus.cfm</ref>, unless otherwise noted. Dates are given for all figures; the most recent available are used. Those systems marked with an asterisk (*) are integrated with a heavy rail rapid transit system.
 |
 |
| Rank | System | Largest city served | Ridership | Date | Miles of track |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MBTA T Green line* | Boston | 200,400 | Second quarter of 2006 | 25<ref>TBF.org]</ref> |
| 2 | Muni Metro, cable car, and F Market* | San Francisco | 170,600 | Second quarter of 2006 | |
| 3 | Los Angeles County Metro Rail Blue, Green, and Gold lines* | Los Angeles | 137,700 | Second quarter of 2006 | 73<ref>[1] Lightrail now.org</ref> |
| 4 | Metropolitan Area Express and Portland Streetcar | Portland | 104,300 | Second quarter of 2006 | 44+6<ref>[2] Tri-Met Web Site</ref> <ref>http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/history.php</ref> |
| 5 | San Diego Trolley | San Diego | 100,900 | Second quarter of 2006 | 51<ref>[3] Metropolitan Transit System Fact Sheet</ref> |
| 6 | SEPTA Subway-Surface Lines, Suburban Trolley Lines, and Girard Avenue Trolley* | Philadelphia | 68,600 | Second quarter of 2006 | |
| 7 | DART Light Rail | Dallas | 62,400 | Second quarter of 2006 | 45<ref>[4] DART Web Site</ref> |
| 8 | Metrolink | St. Louis | 58,700 | Second quarter of 2006 | 46<ref>[5] Metrolink Web Site</ref> |
| 9 | UTA TRAX | Salt Lake City | 53,400 | Fourth quarter of 2005 | 19<ref>[6]Salt Lake Tribune</ref> |
| 10 | Sacramento Regional Transit District Light Rail | Sacramento | 51,100 | First quarter of 2006 | 36.9<ref>[7]RTA website</ref> |
| 11 | METRORail | Houston | 37,800 | Second quarter of 2006 | 7.5<ref>[8] Metro Safety Web Site</ref> |
| 12 | RTD Light Rail | Denver | 30,800 | Second quarter of 2006 | 15.8[citation needed] |
| 13 | Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Light Rail | San Jose | 30,500 | Second quarter of 2006 | 42.2[citation needed] |
| 14 | Hiawatha Line | Minneapolis | 28,800 | Second quarter of 2006 | 12<ref>http://www.metrotransit.org/rail/facts.asp</ref> |
| 15 | Hudson-Bergen Light Rail* | Jersey City | 27,000 | March 2006<ref name="HBLR">Hudson-Bergen, NJ: Light Rail Ridership's "Booming", New Transit-Oriented Development is "Sprouting", Light Rail Now May 2006: http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_hb_2006-05a.htm</ref><ref name="NJT">The APTA combines statistics for all New Jersey Transit light rail operations, which includes the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, the Newark Light Rail, and the River LINE. The APTA reports a combined ridership for the three systems for the second quarter of 2006 of 14,880 per day (both weekdays and weekends).</ref> | |
| 16 | The T | Pittsburgh | 26,000 | Second quarter of 2006 | 25<ref>[9] Pittsburgh's T quick facts</ref> |
| 17 | Streetcars in New Orleans | New Orleans | 25,240 | July 2005<ref name="NO">Average is for all days in the month, not just weekdays. These are pre-Katrina figures.</ref> | 21.5<ref>[10] Saint Charles Line</ref><ref>[11]Canal and Riverfront line</ref> |
| 18 | Newark Light Rail* | Newark | 18,450 | August 2006<ref name="NLR">Newark: "Back to the Future" With Newark City Light Rail's New Broad St. Extension!, Light Rail Now August 2006: http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_nwk_2006-08a.htm</ref><ref name="NJT" /> | 5.3<ref>http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_nwk_2006-08a.htm</ref> |
| 19 | Buffalo Metro Rail | Buffalo | 18,000 | Second quarter of 2006 | 6.6[citation needed] |
| 20 | Baltimore Light Rail* | Baltimore | 18,000 | First quarter of 2005<ref name="B">These figures, the most recently available for the Baltimore Light Rail, represent a time period when much of the system was shut down for renovations. The most recent figures for a period when the entire system was open are 25,600 daily trips, for the fourth quarter of 2003.</ref> | 30<ref>Roads to the Future: Baltimore Central Light Rail Line</ref> |
| 21 | The Rapid Blue and Green Lines | Cleveland | 9,700 | Second quarter of 2006 | |
| 22 | River LINE | Trenton | 6,900[citation needed] | [citation needed] <ref name="NJT" /> | |
| 23 | Tacoma Link | Tacoma | 3,000 | 2006 | 1.6<ref>Sound Transit Quarterly Performance Report</ref> |
| 24 | Memphis RTA Main Street Trolley | Memphis | 3,000 | Second quarter of 2006 | |
| 25 | Island Transit trolley | Galveston | 200 | Second quarter of 2006 | 6<ref>[12] Galveston Island Transit website</ref> |
The following is a list of light rail systems in the United States, ranked by ridership per mile of track. Figures are computed using the 'ridership' and 'miles of track' numbers above.
San Francisco, Philidelphia, New Orleans, Hudson, and Cleveland are left out here since the miles of track figures were not available.
| Rank | Community served | Ridership per mile |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston | 8,016 |
| 2 | Houston | 5,040 |
| 3 | Newark | 3,481 |
| 4 | Salt Lake City | 2,810 |
| 5 | Buffalo | 2,727 |
| 6 | Minneapolis | 2,400 |
| 7 | Portland | 2,086 |
| 8 | San Diego | 1,978 |
| 9 | Denver | 1,949 |
| 10 | Los Angeles | 1,886 |
| 11 | Tacoma | 1,875 |
| 12 | Dallas | 1,386 |
| 13 | Sacramento | 1,384 |
| 14 | St. Louis | 1,276 |
| 15 | Pittsburgh | 1,040 |
| 16 | San Jose | 722 |
| 17 | Baltimore | 600 |
| 18 | Galveston | 33 |
<references />
