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Updates first then a few observations by city/system in a later post:
All are annual 2023 totals January- December:
Heavy Rail top 10:
MTA New York City Transit- 2,027,286,000 +13.06%
G-A-P
The rest:
WMATA Washington DC- 136,303,200 +46.48%
CTA Chicago- 117,447,000 +13.45%
MBTA Boston- 85,397,200 +5.85%
PATH NJ- 55,109,100 +21.12%
BART San Francisco- 46,397,300 +17.04%
SEPTA Philadelphia- 45,559,700 +10.61
MARTA Atlanta- 31,110,300 +10.33
Los Angeles County MTA- 25,899,200 +0.51%
Miami-Dade Transit- 13,439,300 +12.45%
Light Rail top 10:
San Diego Metrop Transit System- 38,438,000 +13.02%
Los Angeles County MTA- 36,082,100 +16.16%
MBTA Boston- 34,581,000 +18%
Sound Transit Seattle- 27,338,200 +14.36%
San Francisco Muni Rwy- 24,324,600 +37.16%
Tri-County Metro Portland- 23,446,700 +13.51%
DART Dallas- 21,380,900 +17.14%
NJ Transit Newark 20,827,300 +19.04%
Metro Transit Minneapolis- 14,755,900 +19.32%
SEPTA Philadelphia- 13,248,600 +14.62%
Commuter Rail can be looked up, lots of high percentage jumps there on the list.
Bus agency top 10: will just list the order here
NYC MTA Transit/ Bus Company
Los Angeles County MTA
CTA Chicago
NJ Transit
WMATA Washington DC
SEPTA Philadelphia
MBTA Boston
SF Muni
Seattle King County
Houston Metro Harris County
Overall there was a good increase percentage wise YOY for transit in a number of cities, with some others having a lot of room for improvement still.
Last edited by the resident09; 03-20-2024 at 06:33 PM..
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Obviously being local the huge glaring observation to me is WMATA not only entrenched itself, but looks to have separated even more as #2 in HR. The DC Metro averaged over 100k more weekday riders than CTA in 2023, and ended the year with almost 20 million more total riders. Even more impressive for DC there are more post pandemic ridership records breaking this year, and it looks as if based on 4th qtr only stats DC in all forms of rail eked out both Chicago CTA + Metra, and the MBTA's combined rail options as well:
4th qtr 2023:
WMATA- 37,140,900
DC Streetcar- 197,700
MARC- 924,700
VRE- 364,300
Obviously being local the huge glaring observation to me is WMATA not only entrenched itself, but looks to have separated even more as #2 in HR. The DC Metro averaged over 100k more weekday riders than CTA in 2023, and ended the year with almost 20 million more total riders. Even more impressive for DC there are more post pandemic ridership records breaking this year, and it looks as if based on 4th qtr only stats DC in all forms of rail eked out both Chicago CTA + Metra, and the MBTA's combined rail options as well:
4th qtr 2023:
WMATA- 37,140,900
DC Streetcar- 197,700
MARC- 924,700
VRE- 364,300
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,128 posts, read 7,547,924 times
Reputation: 5785
Quote:
Originally Posted by btownboss4
Chicago is frankly not very impressive.
Hopefully as the MBTA fixes itself it gets up on par with service levels elsewhere.
I worry for the CTA because it seems to be languishing without obvious issues
Weren't there issues with the Green Line with MBTA? Have those been fixed yet?
CTA has been lapped by WMATA now tbh. They're honestly on two separate trajectories at this point. I hope that CTA turns things around at some point this decade levels back up to it's full potential. Even then with the recent success of WMATA, TOD growth in DC, and fact that they might be actually resolving the budget issues with WMATA, it's hard to see where CTA overtakes it going forward.
Weren't there issues with the Green Line with MBTA? Have those been fixed yet?
CTA has been lapped by WMATA now tbh. They're honestly on two separate trajectories at this point. I hope that CTA turns things around at some point this decade levels back up to it's full potential. Even then with the recent success of WMATA, TOD growth in DC, and fact that they might be actually resolving the budget issues with WMATA, it's hard to see where CTA overtakes it going forward.
The ridership experience on WMATA is much better than the CTA too imo. With reliability issues and the dirtiness of CTA trains vs Metro, it makes sense why WMATA has taken over.
Weren't there issues with the Green Line with MBTA? Have those been fixed yet?
CTA has been lapped by WMATA now tbh. They're honestly on two separate trajectories at this point. I hope that CTA turns things around at some point this decade levels back up to it's full potential. Even then with the recent success of WMATA, TOD growth in DC, and fact that they might be actually resolving the budget issues with WMATA, it's hard to see where CTA overtakes it going forward.
I think the Green Line having significantly better ridership growth than the subway has more to do with the GLX service patterns that the 2022 Green line seeing great leaps and bounds improvements
Also does the MBTA just have monstrous weekend ridership on the Commuter rail? Compared to the Metra it’s 97 vs 152 which is 156%, while total is 115%.
Daily average for Q4 was 77k or 80% of weekday. Chicago was ~1/2.
Last edited by btownboss4; 03-20-2024 at 08:03 PM..
Obviously being local the huge glaring observation to me is WMATA not only entrenched itself, but looks to have separated even more as #2 in HR. The DC Metro averaged over 100k more weekday riders than CTA in 2023, and ended the year with almost 20 million more total riders. Even more impressive for DC there are more post pandemic ridership records breaking this year, and it looks as if based on 4th qtr only stats DC in all forms of rail eked out both Chicago CTA + Metra, and the MBTA's combined rail options as well:
4th qtr 2023:
WMATA- 37,140,900
DC Streetcar- 197,700
MARC- 924,700
VRE- 364,300
The Bay Area and Boston each saw big jumps in commuter rail ridership.
Denver saw a decrease in light rail ridership, does anyone know what's going on there, or why that might be?
San Diego, LA, Seattle, and Portland continue to duke out it out in the West and are each bouncing back.
Its difficult to understand how San Diego could hold this lead over LA Metro light rail for so long. LA light rail is much larger, serves a vastly larger population area, and has underground capabilities notably absent from SD light rail.
San Diego can't make progress with buses though, while LA metro area buses (including Santa Monica, OCTA, and Long Beach) beat Chicago not only in total but per capital ridership. Quite an illustration of the stealth primacy of LA's bus fleet over everywhere outside of metro NYC, while many still entertain the notion that "everyone" is driving a car up there.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,128 posts, read 7,547,924 times
Reputation: 5785
Quote:
Originally Posted by btownboss4
I think the Green Line having significantly better ridership growth than the subway has more to do with the GLX service patterns that the 2022 Green line seeing great leaps and bounds improvements
Also does the MBTA just have monstrous weekend ridership on the Commuter rail? Compared to the Metra it’s 97 vs 152 which is 156%, while total is 115%.
Daily average for Q4 was 77k or 80% of weekday. Chicago was ~1/2.
That's interesting to see that kind of gap for weekend vs weekday ridership, but not too surprising. I know for example with WMATA that is often considered a hybrid, has seen it's best weekend ridership in history over the last couple years. It's been closing the overall post-pandemic ridership annual numbers down a good bit.
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