Four years ago, St. Louis had the 16th most riders of rail-based transit systems in the United States. By the end of 2015, St. Louis had fallen to 19th in the rankings. As of today, St. Louis is 20th. In 3 years time, St. Louis could be be 22nd which, for all intents and purposes, is rock bottom.
The table below summarizes the top 25 rail-based transit systems excluding commuter rail, but combining totals from separate metropolitan transit agencies (e.g. Philadelphia). Data comes from the APTA Ridership Report for the 4th quarter of 2015.
| Rank | Metro | Ridership | Population | Pop. Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | ∞ | 20,182,305 | 1 |
| 2 | Washington D.C. | 836,800 | 6,097,684 | 7 |
| 3 | Chicago | 772,900 | 9,551,031 | 3 |
| 4 | Boston | 755,400 | 4,774,321 | 10 |
| 5 | San Francisco | 626,300 | 4,656,132 | 11 |
| 6 | Philadelphia | 455,400 | 6,069,343 | 7 |
| 7 | Los Angeles | 334,500 | 13,340,068 | 2 |
| 8 | Atlanta | 231,700 | 5,710,795 | 9 |
| 9 | San Diego | 123,300 | 3,263,431 | 17 |
| 10 | Portland | 122,900 | 2,389,228 | 23 |
| 11 | Miami | 109,900 | 6,012,331 | 8 |
| 12 | Dallas | 104,800 | 7,102,796 | 4 |
| 13 | Denver | 76,600 | 2,814,330 | 19 |
| 14 | Minneapolis | 71,400 | 3,524,583 | 16 |
| 15 | Salt Lake City | 67,300 | 1,170,266 | 48 |
| 16 | Baltimore | 65,800 | 2,797,407 | 21 |
| 17 | Houston | 60,600 | 6,656,947 | 5 |
| 18 | Phoenix | 47,900 | 4,574,531 | 12 |
| 19 | St. Louis | 47,600 | 2,811,588 | 20 |
| 20 | Sacramento | 45,300 | 2,274,194 | 27 |
| 21 • | Seattle | 41,000 | 3,733,580 | 15 |
| 22 | San Jose | 33,400 | 1,976,836 | 35 |
| 23 | Cleveland | 30,800 | 2,060,810 | 31 |
| 24 | Pittsburgh | 26,900 | 2,353,045 | 26 |
| 25 | New Orleans | 22,900 | 1,262,888 | 46 |
| – • | Honolulu | – | 998,714 | 54 |
- Seattle opened its U-Link extension on March 19, 2016 and has likely jumped 5 or more spots in the rankings.
- Honolulu is expected to open its new automated rail transit system in 2018. The system has a projected ridership of 120,000 trips per day.
