List of busiest railway stations in North America
This is a list of the busiest railway stations in North America. The figures are collected by the different operating agencies of each railway station, and are estimates based on ticket usage data, crowd sizes and other extrapolations. This data only covers Canada and the United States as a detailed passenger volume breakdown of other countries in North America such as Mexico is not available.
List of busiest railway stations by annual passenger and commuter rail volume
This list ranks railway stations in North America based on annual volume of passengers traveling by passenger rail or commuter rail only. Other visitors are not included.For example, Grand Central Terminal, a major attraction on its own right in New York City, has nearly 500,000 people visiting the station daily either to shop, dine, conduct business, meet family and friends, or admire the station. Those visitors are not included in the count of passengers as they are not using the passenger rail or the commuter rail services. Similarly, Grand Central Terminal also has a major subway station in its vicinity which processes nearly 45 million passengers annually but since they arrive and depart using the subway, they are also not included in the final passenger count.
Only stations which process at least 10 million annual passengers are shown. The below list is comparable with how the United Kingdom tracks its busiest railway stations as they also use the same criteria.
Rank | Railway Station | Annual entries/exits | City | Country | Main Services | Number of platforms | Interchange systems | Image |
1 | New York Penn Station | 107.416 | New York City | Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, NJ Transit | 11 | New York City Subway, PATH | ||
2 | Toronto Union Station | 72.410 | Toronto | Amtrak, GO Transit, Union Pearson Express, Via Rail | 12 | Toronto streetcar, Toronto subway | ||
3 | Grand Central Terminal | 66.952 | New York City | Metro-North Railroad | 44 | New York City Subway | ||
4 | Jamaica Station | 59.803 | New York City | Long Island Rail Road | 5 | AirTrain JFK, New York City Subway | ||
5 | Chicago Union Station | 43.948 | Chicago | Amtrak, Metra | 30 | Chicago "L" | ||
6 | Ogilvie Transportation Center | 31.905 | Chicago | Metra | 8 | Chicago "L" | ||
7 | South Station | 28.875 | Boston | Amtrak, MBTA Commuter Rail | 13 | MBTA subway | ||
8 | Newark Penn Station | 17.881 | Newark | Amtrak, NJ Transit | 6 | Newark Light Rail, PATH | ||
9 | World Trade Center Station | 17.159 | New York City | PATH | 4 | New York City Subway | ||
10 | Hoboken Terminal | 14.950 | Hoboken | NJ Transit, Metro-North Railroad | 10 | Hudson–Bergen Light Rail, PATH, NY Waterway | ||
11 | Washington Union Station | 13.665 | Washington, D.C. | Amtrak, MARC Train, Virginia Railway Express | 18 | DC Streetcar, Washington Metro | ||
12 | 30th Street Station | 12.270 | Philadelphia | Amtrak, NJ Transit, SEPTA Regional Rail | 9 | Market–Frankford Line, SEPTA subway–surface trolley lines | ||
13 | Los Angeles Union Station | 10.999 | Los Angeles | Amtrak, Metrolink | 9 | Los Angeles Metro Rail | ||
14 | Millennium Station | 10.764 | Chicago | Metra, South Shore Line | 6 | Chicago "L" | ||
15 | Montreal Central Station | 10.687 | Montreal | Amtrak, Exo, Via Rail | 7 | Montreal Metro |
List of busiest railway stations by average weekday visitors
This list ranks railway stations in North America by average weekday visitors. There are two categories of visitors. The first are transit visitors which includes rail passengers, rail commuters, subway riders from adjoining subway stations, and people using other forms of transportation to get to and from the station such as Buses, Light Rail, Air Trains, etc. The second are non-transit visitors which includes people using the station amenities to shop, dine, meet family and friends, tourists visiting the station, people meeting at the station to conduct business, people walking through the station, and station employees and other workers who pass through the station. The average weekday visitor is the total of both categories.Only stations which handle an average of at least 100,000 weekday visitors are shown.
Rank | Station | Transit Visitors | Non-Transit Visitors | Total Visitors | City | Country |
1 | Grand Central Terminal | 250,000 | 500,000 | 750,000 | New York City | |
2 | New York Penn Station | 630,000 | 20,000 | 650,000 | New York City | |
3 | Toronto Union Station | 250,000 | 50,000 | 300,000 | Toronto | |
4 | Jamaica Station | 200,000 | - | 200,000 | New York City | |
5 | Washington Union Station | 50,000 | 110,000 | 160,000 | Washington, D.C. | |
6 | Chicago Union Station | 150,000 | - | 150,000 | Chicago | |
7 | Los Angeles Union Station | 110,000 | - | 110,000 | Los Angeles | |
8 | Ogilvie Transportation Center | 106,700 | - | 106,700 | Chicago |