US Light Rail Systems by Ridership and Track Miles

Rank System Largest city served Daily ridership Date Miles of track
1 MBTA T Green line and Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line* Boston 255,100 Third quarter of 2007 25.4[2]
2 Muni Metro, cable car, and F Market* San Francisco 146,200 Third quarter of 2007 66.1[3] + 5.4[3]
3 Los Angeles County Metro Rail Blue, Green, and Gold lines* Los Angeles 134,400 Third quarter of 2007 55.7[4]
4 San Diego Trolley San Diego 124,300 Third quarter of 2007 53.5[5]
5 MAX Light Rail and Portland Streetcar Portland 107,900 Third quarter of 2007 44[6] + 6.0[7]
6 SEPTA Subway-Surface Lines, Suburban Trolley Lines, and Girard Avenue Trolley* Philadelphia 89,600 Third quarter of 2007 60[8]
7 MetroLink St. Louis 82,000 Third quarter of 2007 46[9]
8 DART Light Rail, MATA streetcar Dallas 62,200 Third quarter of 2007 45[10] + 3.6[11]
9 RTD Light Rail Denver 59,700 Third quarter of 2007 35[12]
10 Sacramento Regional Transit District Light Rail Sacramento 49,500 Second quarter of 2007 36.9[13]
11 UTA TRAX Salt Lake City 042,500 First quarter of 2007[14] 19[15]
12 METRORail Houston 41,700 Third quarter of 2007 7.5[16]
13 Santa Clara VTA Light Rail San Jose 36,000 Third quarter of 2007 28.6[17]
14 Hiawatha Line Minneapolis 29,500 Third quarter of 2007 12[18]
15 Baltimore Light Rail* Baltimore 27,300 Third quarter of 2007 30.0[19]
16 Hudson-Bergen Light Rail* Jersey City 25,850[20] Second quarter of 2006 27.2[20]
17 The T Pittsburgh 24,200 Third quarter of 2007 25[21]
18 Buffalo Metro Rail Buffalo 19,100 Third quarter of 2007 6.4[22]
19 Newark Light Rail* Newark 18,000[20] Second quarter of 2006 9.9[20]
20 The Rapid Blue and Green Lines* Cleveland 11,400 Third quarter of 2007[14] 15[23]
21 River Line Trenton 7,350[20] Second quarter of 2006 69.7[20]
22 Streetcars in New Orleans New Orleans 4,500 Third quarter of 2007 21.5[24][25]
23 Memphis RTA Main Street Trolley Memphis 003,300 Third quarter of 2007 7[26]
24 Tacoma Link Tacoma 2,873[27] First quarter of 2007 1.6[28]
25 TECO Line Streetcar System Tampa 800 Third quarter of 2007 2.3[7]
26 Charlotte Trolley Charlotte 700[29] Fourth quarter of 2004 2.1[30]
27 River Rail Streetcar Little Rock 340[31] 2005 2.5[7]
28 Kenosha Transit Kenosha 300 Second quarter of 2007 2.0[7]
29 Island Transit trolley Galveston 200 Second quarter of 2007 5.2[32]

[edit] Ridership per Mile

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.
Rank Largest city served Ridership per mile
1 Boston 10,043
2 Houston 5,560
3 Buffalo 2,984
4 Minneapolis 2,458
5 Los Angeles 2,412
6 San Diego 2,323
7 Salt Lake City 2,237
8 Portland 2,158
9 San Francisco 2,045
10 Newark 1,818
11 Tacoma 1,799
12 St. Louis 1,782
13 Denver 1,705
14 Philadelphia 1,493
15 Sacramento 1,341
16 Dallas 1,280
17 San Jose 1,258
18 Pittsburgh 968
19 Jersey City 950
20 Baltimore 910
21 Cleveland 760
22 Memphis 529
23 Tampa 391
24 Charlotte 333
25 New Orleans 209
26 Kenosha 150
27 Little Rock 136
28 Trenton 105
29 Galveston 38

Notes

1. ^ American Public Transportation Association, Light Rail Transit Ridership Report, Third Quarter 2007.
2. ^ Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization, Transportation System Performance, The MBTA System: Quick Facts, 2003.
3. ^ a b San Francisco Municipal Railway, Short Range Transit Plan, Chapter 8: Infrastructure Program, December 6, 2005.
4. ^ Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, Facts at a Glance, June 19, 2007.
5. ^ Metropolitan Transit System, Fact Sheet, May 2007.
6. ^ Tri-Met, Facts about Tri-Met, October 2006.
7. ^ a b c d American Public Transportation Association, APTA Streetcar and Heritage Trolley Site, Overview.
8. ^ SEPTA, SEPTA Operating Facts, Fiscal Year 2006.
9. ^ St. Louis Metro, Inside Metrolink, 2007.
10. ^ Dallas Area Rapid Transit, DART Rail Facts
11. ^ American Public Transportation Association, APTA Streetcar and Heritage Trolley Site, Dallas Overview.
12. ^ Regional Transit District, RTD Facts, February, 2006; Regional Transit District, About Southeast Light Rail, 2007.
13. ^ Sacramento Regional Transit District, RT at a Glance.
14. ^ a b American Public Transportation Association, Light Rail Transit Ridership Report, First Quarter 2007.
15. ^ Schneider, Keith. "A Rail Line Drives Development in Utah", New York Times, April 22, 2007.
16. ^ News: News Releases
17. ^ Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Web Site, Frequently Asked Questions, Where does VTA provide service?
18. ^ Metro Transit, Facts about trains and construction, 2007.
19. ^ Roads to the Future: Baltimore Central Light Rail Line
20. ^ a b c d e f New Jersey Transit, Facts at a Glance, Fiscal Year 2006. 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.
21. ^ Port Authority of Allegheny County, T Quick Facts.
22. ^ NFTA-Metro, Metro Rail Facts, 2004.
23. ^ Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, RTA Facts.
24. ^ [1] Saint Charles Line
25. ^ [2]Canal and Riverfront line
26. ^ [3]Memphis Streetcar
27. ^ Sound Transit, Quarterly Performance Report, First Quarter 2007.
28. ^ Sound Transit, Light Rail Fares
29. ^ Ridership Is Low For Charlotte's Morning Trolley Service - Charlotte News Story - WSOC Charlotte
30. ^ American Public Transportation Association, APTA Streetcar and Heritage Trolley Site, Charlotte, July 2005.
31. ^ MassTransitMag.com » Article » Builders Like Rail Line, but Riders are Sparse
32. ^ American Public Transportation Association, APTA Streetcar and Heritage Trolley Site - Galveston Overview,

Houston Light Rail - "A Streetcar Named Disaster"

Wednesday, August 11, 2004, 12:00 AM.
Houston's light rail making a real dent in city's car traffic

By Mark Babineck

The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Once called the "train to nowhere," Houston's new rail line between downtown and the Astrodome is earning a few new nicknames: "Danger Train," the "Wham Bam Tram," "A Streetcar Named Disaster."

More than 50 collisions have occurred along the 7.5-mile route since it opened in November, most of them with cars making illegal turns across the tracks.

Rail promoters promised the sleek, gray trains would take cars off the road — "They've just done it one car at a time," said John Gaver, who started the Wham-Bam-Tram counter, a Web site that tallies each crash.

The MetroRail averages six crashes a month — a rate 20 times worse than the average for the nation's 17 light-rail systems, according to the Federal Transit Administration.

Most of the wrecks are minor and injury-free, and the soft rubber noses on the quiet, 200-passenger trains usually don't suffer much damage. All but one of the crashes was blamed on error by the car drivers, leaving motorists and their insurance carriers liable for any medical costs or damage to vehicles or trains.

Joe Kittrell, a 65-year-old barber, is among the few people injured in a crash.

Kittrell was leaving the downtown Sears store Dec. 19 and took an unfamiliar route when he turned left on a green light. His next memory is waking up in a hospital a day and a half later with broken ribs. He learned that a train smacked into his truck, pushing it at least 75 yards.

Kittrell says he never saw a no-left-turn sign.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, known as Metro, initially blamed drivers, saying Houstonians are 2-1/2 times more crash-prone than motorists elsewhere, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Still, Metro commissioned the Texas Transportation Institute to see if the transit authority could do anything to reduce crashes. The institute suggested the transit authority change the route's traffic-light sequences, warning signs and other markers, which it did.

If the transit authority had followed an early recommendation to elevate the tracks, as Chicago did for its trains, crashes wouldn't be a problem, said Ned Levine, lead traffic-safety researcher for the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments.

But key suburban members of Congress blocked federal funds for the train project, so former Metro Chairwoman Shirley DeLibero soldiered ahead with local money — meaning the line was built as inexpensively as possible.

"They were told repeatedly by transportation planners, anytime you do an at-grade rail line you're asking for trouble," Levine said.

City Councilman Michael Berry said Metro should have anticipated problems, since the track runs through downtown, the Museum District, the Texas Medical Center and the Astrodome-Reliant Park complex — all busy areas with dozens of crossings.

"You will notice in Colorado when you're driving around steep cliffs, they put a guardrail around it," Berry said.

"It technically would be driver error to drive off the cliff, but public-safety concerns are such that they put a guardrail there."

Levine said sections of Main Street already had a crash rate of four times the national average without the rail line. If cars continue to collide with the trains, transit authorities may have no choice but to rebuild the line, raising the tracks above the streets, he said.