America's Rail Systems by Ridership

[Metro Jacksonville]

America's Rail Systems by Ridership



This list of United States heavy rail, light rail/streetcar, commuter rail, and downtown people mover ridership statistics indicates that success or failure of rail transit systems may not be based off of traditional density and urban area population statistics.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-jan-americas-rail-systems-by-ridership-

[tufsu1]

nice list....realized I have ridden over 30 of these systems/lines....including all of the heavy rail, except Los Angeles and Long island

[thelakelander]

You've got me beat.  I think I've ridden on about 22 of them.

[PeeJayEss]

What is the difference between heavy rail (what wiki calls "rapid transit") and non-light rail commuter/regional? It seems like there is some gray area in those. From wikipedia's definition, there are a few from rapid transit that I would have put as commuter. For the nomenclature here, I'm not sure what rapid transit is, exactly? Is it dedicated track?

17 for me...

[thelakelander]

Heavy Rail (rapid transit) is also known as "third rail".  That third rail is electric, allowing for  higher speeds and rapid acceleration.  These types of systems also tend to have shorter headways and higher passenger capacity than other forms of rail.  Because of that third rail, they also have to be grade separated.

Commuter rail/regional rail  is an electric or diesel propelled urban passenger train service consisting of local short distance travel operating between adjacent cities and towns, or between a central city and adjacent suburbs, using either locomotive hauled or multiple unit railroad passenger cars.  Many commuter rail systems only run on weekdays and have longer headways than heavy rail rapid transit systems.  Also, unlike heavy rail, commuter rail systems can operate on the same track as freight rail.

[Adam W]

The ridership numbers for the NYC subway seemed really high to me, so I checked the MTA website and they show the 2011 average weekday ridership number as 5,284,295.

That's still amazing, though.

http://www.mta.info/nyct/facts/ridership/

[Lunican]

All ridership figures represent "unlinked" passenger trips (i.e. line transfers on multi-line systems register as separate trips).

http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2011-q4-ridership-APTA.pdf

[Lunican]

Annual Subway Ridership Globally:

Code: [Select]

1. Tokyo              3.151 billion (2010)
2. Moscow              2.389 billion (2011)
3. Beijing              2.180 billion (2011)
4. Shanghai      1.884 billion (2010)
5. Seoul              1.769 billion (2010)
6. Guangzhou      1.640 billion (2011)
7. New York City        1.640 billion (2011)
8. Paris              1.506 billion (2010)
9. Mexico City      1.410 billion (2010)
10. Hong Kong      1.378 billion (2011)

[Adam W]

All ridership figures represent "unlinked" passenger trips (i.e. line transfers on multi-line systems register as separate trips).

http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2011-q4-ridership-APTA.pdf

So, if you were going from, say, Grand Central Terminal to Carroll Street station and had to transfer from the 6 train to the F train, that would count as two trips (and would count towards "2" in the weekday ridership)?

[Lunican]

Yeah. There are lots of weird ways they count ridership, but I guess as long as everything on the list uses the same method it's ok for comparison.

[Adam W]

Yeah. There are lots of weird ways they count ridership, but I guess as long as everything on the list uses the same method it's ok for comparison.

Fair enough! It seems like it would be a monumental task keeping track of that sort of data.

Any way you slice it though, NYC dwarfs all other US subway (or heavy rail transit or whatever) systems. Like by a country mile.

[thelakelander]

It also slices the other metro areas and most states by population and density in general.  In the US, NYC should not be a benchmark. It's an extreme exception.

[Adam W]

It also slices the other metro areas and most states by population and density in general.  In the US, NYC should not be a benchmark. It's an extreme exception.

Of course. It's a one-of-a-kind place. And that's something every friggin New Yorker feels the need to remind you of constantly 

[Ocklawaha]

Don't forget Mumbi (Bombay) India which chocked up 7.24 million commuters daily. Annual ridership 2.64 billion.

[Adam W]

Don't forget Mumbi (Bombay) India which chocked up 7.24 million commuters daily. Annual ridership 2.64 billion.

I didn't think the Mumbai Metro was built yet.

Edit: I realised after posting this that you were probably returning to the issue of rail and not necessarily sticking with subways/rapid transit or whatever - and your comment might not have been in response to the table Lunican posted. So I did a bit more research and see you were referring to Mumbai Suburban Railway. Sorry about that