the numbers typically being referred to in this thread are average weekday riders.... as with the 13k you've referenced in Salt Lake.

the Austin numbers you reference are for entire months, meaning the daily ridership is a tiny fraction of that - 2.9k/day. such tiny number are easily distorted by even one or two special events.

I would imagine that the 10.42% gain for Miami's Metrorail from 2012 is probably due to the opening of the new Airport station which is impressive.

If APTA has released the first Quarter numbers for 2013 can somebody post the new figures so we can update this thread?

What is going in with Montreal? Ridership is reported to be down, but it lists for heavy rail (Metro) a weekday average of 1,241,000 compared to 627,700 last month - compare http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...rship-APTA.pdf to http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...rship-APTA.pdf

Montreal numbers have always seemed odd. They've got about the same length of track and same number of stations as Toronto (960,300 passengers this quarter). And same passenger capacity in rolling stock (more cars, but shorter and narrow ... total square metres of carrying capacity is a bit lower). And the trains are less frequent than in Toronto. However Toronto is running pretty much at capacity during peak, and is much more frequent off-peak ... but Montreal reports more ridership?

Something seems grossly inconsistent in the reporting here.

I think they simply just accidently reported linked trips last year, or maybe unlinked trip data was not available, and this year they're reporting unlinked trips again, like in previous years.

Montreal's higher ridership might just be because of more transfers, or shorter trips, or more off-peak trips. It's not like Toronto where frequent transit use is considered a bad thing, and frequent transit riders a burden on the system and on the city, and weekly/monthly passes ridiculously priced as a result.

edit: Note also that the APTA numbers for BC Transit (Victoria Regional Transit System?), Brampton Transit, and York Region Transit are also all linked trips and should not be compared to any US numbers.

Still doesn't make sense, Off-peak metro service even less frequent than Toronto in comparison to peak service. The off-peak trains aren't particularly full. The off-peak bus service isn't busier than Toronto. Not based on the observations I've made living in both cities.

Something doesn't add up.

Maybe your observations aren't very accurate.

I wonder when Q1 2014 will be released. Can't find it anywhere.

The Public Transportation Ridership Report is a quarterly report of transit passenger ridership for U.S. and Canadian transit agencies. The report includes quarterly and year-to-date estimated unlinked transit passenger trips for the current and previous year by transit mode. In addition, agency specific ridership is provided for participating transit agencies. Reports are published approximately 60-75 days after the end of the quarter.

Source:
http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...hipreport.aspx

Q1 2014 report

Heavy Rail average weekday ridership:

1. New York - 8,471,800
2. Washington - 850,200
3. Chicago - 778,800
4. Boston - 540,300
5. San Francisco - 418,100
6. Philadelphia - 326,300
7. Jersey City - 237,500
8. Atlanta - 213,600
9. Los Angeles - 156,500
10. Miami - 75,900
11. San Juan - 45,300
12. Baltimore - 42,300
13. PATCO - 35,300
14. Staten Island - 25,300
15. Cleveland - NA (c. 22,500)

NYMTA up 3.26%, WMATA down 8.62%, CTA up 3.45%.

What's behind the WMATA drop? Federal layoffs in the past year? The magnitude of the DC drop means that if New York's numbers are removed, the combined total of the other heavy rail systems declined year-to-year.

US Light Rail Ridership, First Quarter 2014, via the latest APTA Ridership Report

 City and Agency       Weekday Ridership   Q1 Change
  San Francisco Muni                    214,300                     4.25%
  Boston MBTA                             210,000                    -4.36%
  Los Angeles MTA                        194,900                    -1.29%
  San Diego MTS                          120,600                     45.07%
  Portland TriMet                          114,600                    -0.43%
  Philadelphia SEPTA                     107,300                    -6.43%
  Dallas DART                                92,800                     0.13%
  Denver RTD                                81,800                     26.65%
  Salt Lake City UTA                       65,800                     11.71%
  St. Louis Metro                            49,000                    -1.68%
  Phoenix Valley Metro                    47,600                    3.94%
  Sacramento RTD                          47,300                    -2.58%
  Houston MTA                               42,600                    13.41%
  San Jose VTA                              34,700                     2.09%
  Seattle Sound Transit                  32,800                     12.58%
  Pittsburgh Port Authority              27,600                     -4.04%
  Minneapolis Metro                        24,600                     -11.29
  Baltimore MTA                             23,100                     -4.69
  New Orleans RTA                         19,100                     7.88%

 Newark NJT (N/A--estimate)          65,000                     0.92%

The Toronto subway was at 1,084,600 daily riders. Not bad for a system only 42 miles long!

Montreal has a busier subway system now. Some of this has to do with new construction work and rehab being done in Toronto.

I wonder why both Vancouver Translink and Ottawa continue to bleed ridership?
I know that in Vancouver it is causing a serious problem with revenues and they are cutting service.

Those Calgary numbers are amazing when you consider the transit service only serves 1.180 million as it does not serve any satellite cities and nor do they feed into the Calgary system. I love how Vancouverites love to mock Calgary and talk about Vancouver being so green and Calgary just being a bunch of oil-rich SUV driving cowboys but Calgary has higher percapita ridership serving less than half as many people.

These new stats for the US are generally pretty bad and despite all the huge investments in transit and the hop-on-the-LRT movement, Americans don't seem to be making much of a switch from their cars. Ridership levels are better than they were 10 years ago but that says very little and considering the huge amount of expansion and money spent, the results have generally been rather poor with a few notable exceptions like Salt Lake City.

Service frequency on LRT systems built in the United States in recent years ranges from poor to terrible. Youre not going to get high ridership on low frequency LRT lines.

Salt Lake City ridership is quite impressive considering the area is not very populous. I consider their LRT system a success.

Denver's ridership is also pretty impressive.

San Diego's rapid LRT ridership growth continues--again, what is going on down there?

Also, I think this may be the first time San Francisco has shown the nation's highest LRT ridership. It's notable considering Muni runs entirely within SF's 47 square miles, unlike the other big LRT systems, almost all of which run in multiple municipalities across a larger geographic area.

SF number 1 in light rail ridership?! That's definitely a first! Why the big drop for Boston?

fyi there is a lot of muckity muck post-sandy/safety/wtc work going on downtown on the path trains so wtc service is suspended on weekends thru 2015:
http://gothamist.com/2014/02/06/no_w...etween_wtc.php

I'm just guessing, Trolley renewal that is nearly complete now, meaning less closures on certain weekends along particular sections.

Better counting on the new train cars? Compass card versus paper tickets. Better economy, meaning more vehicle traffic and more rail passengers.

Mid-Coast Trolley extension will increase the numbers by a large margin in the not too distant future. It'll connect UCSD and SD's other downtown - University City area - to the rest of the city.

A list of factors pertaining to why light rail systems in the US do not "work" as well as in Canada:

A) LRTs in the US, with a few notable exceptions, are designed in pieces that when built out as a system do not synchronize with one another well.

This is a function of length of time between conception and completion (20+ years is the norm). This length of time encourages rampant real estate speculation by those with deep pockets and political connections at the expense of good right-of-way layout and station design.

B) Crime and/or the perception of crime. People in the US, due to both venomous media reporting and truly high crime rate in parts of every large metropolitan area, tend to fear riding together with strangers, particularly those between ages 16 and 25 and those with darker skin.

C) Groups of cities with metropolitan areas, with a few notable exceptions, do not work well together politically. As a rule, central city participation is correctly considered viewed by satellite cities as largely a real estate development scheme, where a small area of the core city will develop pedestrian ambience at the expense of the needs of surrounding cities.

D) The lack of Federal Government participation. This is a function of how our two party system has become frozen by a combination of ideology and the ability for the few to provide huge campaign contributions. While Federal Government bureaucrats spew out study after study that are pro public transit, paltry funds are provided via our elected Federal representatives to turn concepts into concrete.

Elite money, whether directly from individuals or through opaque organizational networks determine what is done in the US.

E) Due to A through D, when the economy improves in the US, people go back to their cars.

We still have a superb freeway and public road grid, and, the new cars always look good.