List of North American light rail systems by ridership
The following is a list of all light rail systems in North America, ranked by ridership. Daily figures for American and Canadian light rail systems are "average weekday unlinked passenger trips", unless otherwise indicated. For light rail systems in the United States and Canada, these figures come from the American Public Transit Association Ridership Reports statistics. For Mexico, the figures are obtained from Banco de Información Económica's Instituto Nacional de Estadísitica y Geografía, and the daily figures represent daily passenger trips averaged from the monthly and quarterly ridership figures. All figures are from 2018 and the fourth quarter of 2018, unless otherwise noted. "Daily boardings per mile" figures have been rounded to the nearest 5 or 10.
The question of which systems would count as "light rail transit systems" is debatable, so this table includes some systems which are technically streetcars rather than "true" light rail.
Systems
| System | Country | City/Area served | Annual ridership | Avg. daily weekday boardings | System length | Avg. daily boardings per mile | Year opened | Stations | Lines | Year last expanded | |
| 1 | Guadalajara light rail | Guadalajara | 98,269,000 | 269,230 | 18,069 | 1989 | 29 | 2 | 1994 | ||
| 2 | CTrain | Calgary | 91,029,100 | 312,300 | 8,395 | 1981 | 45 | 2 | 2014 | ||
| 3 | Toronto streetcar system | Toronto | 64,917,000 | 199,700 | 3,916 | 1861 | 708 streetcar stops | 11 | 2016 | ||
| 4 | Metro Rail light rail: Blue, Expo, Gold & Green Lines | Los Angeles | 64,715,700 | 210,400 | 2,388 | 1990 | 65 | 4 | 2016 | ||
| 5 | MBTA light rail: Green Line & Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line | Boston | 53,715,600 | 162,900 | 6,265 | 1897; 1929 | 74 | 2 | 2004; n/a | ||
| 6 | Muni Metro | San Francisco | 49,971,700 | 159,900 | 4,479 | 1980 | 152 | 8 | 2007 | ||
| 7 | Edmonton Light Rail Transit | Edmonton | 39,448,700 | 112,531 | 7,452 | 1978 | 18 | 2 | 2015 | ||
| 8 | MAX Light Rail | Portland, Oregon | 38,953,100 | 119,600 | 1,993 | 1986 | 97 | 5 | 2015 | ||
| 9 | San Diego Trolley | San Diego | 37,139,700 | 115,400 | 2,157 | 1981 | 53 | 4 | 2005 | ||
| 10 | Xochimilco Light Rail | Mexico City | 35,060,000 | 96,054 | 12,006 | 1986 | 18 | 1 | 1988 | ||
| 11 | DART Light Rail | Dallas | 28,759,200 | 95,800 | 1,030 | 1996 | 64 | 4 | 2016 | ||
| 12 | RTD Light Rail | Denver | 25,669,700 | 101,700 | 1,738 | 1994 | 46 | 6 | 2017 | ||
| 13 | Link light rail: Tacoma Link and Central Link | Tacoma & Seattle | 25,314,500 | 77,900 | 3,819 | 2003, 2009 | 5, 15 | 2 | 2016 | ||
| 14 | METRO Light Rail | Minneapolis | 24,955,700 | 76,600 | 3,514 | 2004 | 37 | 2 | 2014 | ||
| 15 | SEPTA light rail: Subway–Surface Lines, Suburban Trolley Lines, & Girard Ave Trolley | Philadelphia | 24,868,200 | 91,000 | 1,330 | 1858 | >100 | 8 | 2005 | ||
| 16 | METRORail | Houston | 18,806,300 | 60,700 | 2,651 | 2004 | 37 | 3 | 2015 | ||
| 17 | TRAX | Salt Lake City | 17,899,600 | 57,700 | 1,288 | 1999 | 50 | 3 | 2013 | ||
| 18 | Hudson–Bergen Light Rail | Jersey City, New Jersey | 16,691,558 | 54,434 | 3,202 | 2000 | 24 | 3 | 2006 | ||
| 19 | Valley Metro Rail | Phoenix | 15,406,300 | 46,800 | 1,800 | 2008 | 35 | 1 | 2016 | ||
| 20 | St. Louis MetroLink | St. Louis | 13,210,200 | 39,400 | 857 | 1993 | 37 | 2 | 2006 | ||
| 21 | Sacramento RT Light Rail | Sacramento, California | 10,464,700 | 36,800 | 858 | 1987 | 53 | 3 | 2015 | ||
| 22 | VTA Light Rail | San Jose, California | 8,538,900 | 47,300 | 1,121 | 1987 | 62 | 3 | 2005 | ||
| 23 | Streetcars in New Orleans | New Orleans | 7,712,900 | 18,800 | 843 | 1835 | streetcar-like surface stops | 4 | 2013 | ||
| 24 | Lynx Rapid Transit Services | Charlotte, North Carolina | 7,376,500 | 23,200 | 1,228 | 2007 | 15 | 1 | 2018 | ||
| 25 | The T: Pittsburgh Light Rail | Pittsburgh | 7,328,100 | - | 1,057 | 1984 | 53 | 2 | 2012 | ||
| 26 | Baltimore Light Rail | Baltimore | 7,157,000 | 18,400 | 558 | 1992 | 33 | 3 | 1997 | ||
| 27 | San Francisco cable car system | San Francisco | 6,286,900 | 15,700 | 3,021 | 1878 | streetcar-like surface stops | 3 | 1952 | ||
| 28 | Portland Streetcar | Portland | 5,627,588 | 20,011 | 2,723 | 2001 | 76 | 2 | 2012 | ||
| 29 | Newark Light Rail | Newark, New Jersey | 5,356,687 | 18,505 | 2,985 | 1935 | 17 | 2 | 2006 | ||
| 30 | Buffalo Metro Rail | Buffalo, New York | 4,492,200 | 16,000 | 2,500 | 1985 | 14 | 1 | n/a | ||
| 31 | O-Train | Ottawa | 3,922,500 | 15,500 | 3,100 | 2001 | 18 | 2 | 2019 | ||
| 32 | River LINE | Trenton–Camden, New Jersey | 2,869,707 | 9,014 | 265 | 2004 | 20 | 1 | n/a | ||
| 33 | SPRINTER | Oceanside, California | 2,403,200 | 7,500 | 341 | 2008 | 15 | 1 | n/a | ||
| 34 | Seattle Streetcar | Seattle | 1,686,500 | 5,500 | 1,447 | 2007 | 17 | 2 | 2016 | ||
| 35 | RTA Rapid Transit: Blue, Green, and Waterfront Lines | Cleveland | 1,638,100 | 5,000 | 327 | 1913 | 34 | 2 | 1996 | ||
| 36 | Tide Light Rail | Norfolk, Virginia | 1,461,500 | 4,600 | 622 | 2011 | 11 | 1 | n/a | ||
| 37 | MATA Trolleys | Memphis, Tennessee | 485,100 | 0 | 0 | 1993 | 25 | 3 | 2004 | ||
| 38 | TECO Line Streetcars | Tampa, Florida | 423,000 | 1,700 | 630 | 2002 | 11 | 1 | 2010 | ||
| 39 | Atlanta Streetcar | Atlanta, Georgia | 280,800 | 300 | 111 | 2014 | 12 | 1 | n/a | ||
| 40 | Sun Link | Tucson, Arizona | n/a | 4,000 | 1,026 | 2014 | 22 | 1 | n/a | ||
| 41 | CityLynx Gold Line | Charlotte, North Carolina | n/a | 1,500 | n/a | 2015 | 6 | 1 | n/a | ||
| 42 | Dallas Streetcar | Dallas, Texas | n/a | n/a | n/a | 2015 | 6 | 1 | 2016 | ||
| 43 | Ion rapid transit | Waterloo, Ontario | n/a | 17,166 | n/a | 2019 | 19 | 1 | n/a |
Sources:
- American Public Transportation Association - Transit Ridership Report - Q4 2016.
- Banco de Información Económica - Instituto Nacional de Estadísitica y Geografía
Excluded systems