American Light Rail Systems by Ridership

The following is a list of all light rail systems in the United States, ranked by ridership. Also included are those urban streetcar (tram) systems that are providing regular public transit service (operating year-round and at least five days/week), except for Portland Streetcar, whose ridership numbers are not given by this article's primary data source.

All figures are average weekday unlinked (i.e. line transfers register as separate trips) passenger trips and come from the American Public Transit Association's Ridership Reports Statistics, 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. Systems marked with an double asterisk (**) are integrated with a commuter rail. Numbers given here represent ridership on light rail lines only; integration into multi-modal transportation systems generally increases ridership.


San Francisco

 1. 237,700 - Boston - MBTA Green Line, Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line * and **

 2. 186,200 - San Francisco - Muni Metro, F/Market Line and Muni Cable Cars

 3. 142,100 - Los Angeles - Metro Rail Blue, Green and Gold Lines * and **

 4. 112,400 - Portland - Max Light Rail **

 5. 94,800 - Philadelphia - SEPTA Subway-Surface Lines, Suburban Trolley Lines and Girard Avenue Trolley*

 6. 93,100 - San Diego - San Diego Trolley **


San Diego's Trolley

 7. 63,200 - Dallas - DART: Red, Green & Blue Lines, MATA Streetcar **

 8. 61,800 - Denver - RTD, The Ride Light Rail

 9. 57,800 - St. Louis - MetroLink

10. 56,800 - Sacramento - Regional Transit District LRT

11. 45,200 - Salt Lake City - UTA TRAX **
 
12. 38,200 - Jersey City - Hudson-Bergen Light Rail *

13. 34,600 - Baltimore - Baltimore Light Rail * and **

14. 33,500 - Phoenix - METRO Light Rail

15. 33,200 - San Jose - Santa Clara VTA Light Rail **

16. 32,300 - Minneapolis - Hiawatha Line **

17. 31,100 - Houston - METRORail

18. 25,200 - Pittsburgh - The T


Pittsburgh's The T

19. 22,300 - Buffalo - Buffalo Metro Rail

20. 20,000 - Charlotte - LYNX Rapid Transit Services

21. 19,050 - Newark - Newark Light Rail *

22. 14,852 - Seattle - Link Light Rail **

23. 10,700 - New Orleans - RTA Streetcars

24. 10,630 - Portland - Portland Streetcar

25.  8,900 - Cleveland - The Rapid Blue and Green Lines *


Cleveland RTA

26.  7,900 - Trenton/Camden - River Line *

27.  7,200 - Oceanside - Sprinter **

28.  4,100 - Memphis - RTA Trolley

29.  3,200 - Tacoma - Tacoma Link **

30.  1,700 - Seattle - South Lake Union Streetcar

31.    700 - Tampa - TECO Line Streetcar

32.    340 - Little Rock - River Rail Streetcar


Litte Rock River Rail Streetcar

33.    200 - Kenosha - Kenosha Transit

34.      0 - Galveston - Galveston Island Trolley (currently shut down due to damage from Hurrican Ike)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_light_rail_systems_by_ridership