Chicago City Wire

Ashland/63rd station ridership increased by 38.8 percent during May compared to the previous year, according to the Chicago Transportation Authority.

The CTA calculates ridership by counting the customers who board a transit vehicle (bus or rail).

Addison (Red Line - North Side) station saw the largest increase in ridership with a 645.3 percent rise.

Rail and bus traffic took a serious hit during the pandemic. The Metra, which provides service to many of Chicago's suburbs, saw a 97% decrease in ridership according to the Active Transportation Alliance. According to the Federal Transit Authority, Chicago's public transportation sector received $1.43 billion in bailout funds from the CARES act to combat the decrease in ridership.

However, the CTA claimed ridership had rebounded 56 percent in the first six months of the year. This isn't a return to normal ridership levels, but CTA's president Dorval R. Cart Jr. said weekday ridership has doubled since the initial shutdown.

Rank	Station	Ridership increase from 2020 to 2021 (%)
1	Addison (Red Line - North Side)	645.3
2	Merchandise Mart	612.5
3	Grand (Red Line - North Side)	539.3
4	Southport	487.4
5	Harrison	450.4
6	Damen (Blue Line - O'Hare)	432.3
7	Armitage	429
8	Noyes	399.4
9	Morgan	388.3
10	Grand (Blue Line - O'Hare)	358.9
11	Washington	356.4
12	Division	345.2
13	Fullerton	335.3
14	California (Blue Line - O'Hare)	318.7
15	Cermak-Chinatown	317.2
16	Chicago (Red Line - North Side)	296.3
17	Chicago (Blue Line - O'Hare)	294.7
18	Damen (Brown Line)	292.1
19	Western (Blue Line - O'Hare)	285
19	Belmont (Red Line - North Side)	285
21	Quincy/Wells	280.6
22	Lake	275
23	State/Lake	270
24	Logan Square	264.4
25	Clark/Division	262.5
26	Washington/Wabash	260.1
27	Diversey	259.4
27	Sedgwick	259.4
29	North/Clybourn	259.3
30	Paulina	256.1
31	Clark/Lake	251.4
32	Addison (Brown Line)	244.9
33	Francisco	244.5
34	Irving Park (Brown Line)	244.4
35	Foster	243.5
36	Monroe (Red Line - State Street Subway)	242.3
37	Sheridan	235.9
38	Monroe (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	232.6
39	LaSalle	232.5
40	18th	223
41	Rockwell	218.2
42	Racine	212.6
43	Wellington	211.9
44	Montrose (Brown Line)	204.2
45	Clinton (Green Line - Lake Street)	203.4
46	Washington/Wells	200.7
47	Chicago (Brown Line)	196.8
48	Damen (Pink Line)	192.2
49	Sox-35th	190.7
50	Oak Park (Green Line - Lake Street)	187.3
51	Western (Brown Line)	187.2
52	Argyle	186.7
53	35th/Archer	181.5
54	Pulaski (Orange Line)	179.2
55	Midway Airport	178.3
56	O'Hare Airport	176.4
57	Linden	172.6
58	Polk	169.8
59	Belmont (Blue Line - O'Hare)	169.1
60	Clinton (Blue Line - Forest Park)	167.6
61	UIC-Halsted	165.1
62	Jackson (Red Line - State Street Subway)	161.7
63	LaSalle/Van Buren	161.3
64	Irving Park (Blue Line - O'Hare)	159.5
65	Harold Washington Library	155.7
66	Adams/Wabash	155.4
67	California (Pink Line)	152
67	Halsted (Orange Line)	152
69	Ridgeland	150.8
70	Kedzie (Brown Line)	149.3
71	Kedzie (Orange Line)	148.8
72	Kimball	147
73	Roosevelt	145.2
74	Wilson	143.6
75	Granville	143.1
76	Thorndale	139.8
77	Davis	138.2
78	Ashland (Green Line - Lake Street)	138.1
79	Loyola	137.2
80	Harlem (Blue Line - O'Hare)	133.3
81	Bryn Mawr	130.7
82	Jackson (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	130.2
83	Dempster	127
84	Western (Orange Line)	126.3
85	Main	125
85	Western (Pink Line)	125
87	Kedzie (Pink Line)	124
88	Dempster-Skokie	118.4
89	54th/Cermak	117.1
90	Cermak	116.5
91	Oak Park (Blue Line - Forest Park)	115.1
92	Cumberland	114.4
93	35-Bronzeville-IIT	113.9
94	Ashland (Orange Line)	113
95	Addison (Blue Line - O'Hare)	111
95	Medical Center	111
97	Jefferson Park	107.9
98	Rosemont	107.7
99	Morse	104.7
100	Jarvis	93.3
101	Oakton	88.9
102	South Boulevard	82.8
103	Garfield (Green Line - South Elevated)	79.3
104	Central (Purple Line - Evanston)	79
105	Western (Blue Line - Forest Park)	77.2
106	Montrose (Blue Line - O'Hare)	76.7
107	California (Green Line - Lake Street)	76.6
108	Austin (Green Line - Lake Street)	76.4
109	Cicero (Pink Line)	72
110	Central Park	71.1
111	51st	66
111	Harlem (Green Line - Lake Street)	66
113	Austin (Blue Line - Forest Park)	64.7
114	Kostner	64
115	Pulaski (Pink Line)	63.4
116	East 63rd-Cottage Grove	58.2
117	Indiana	57.7
118	47th (Green Line - South Elevated)	55.2
119	Garfield (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	55.1
120	Howard	54.2
121	47th (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	53.2
122	Harlem (Blue Line - Forest Park)	49.6
123	43rd	49.2
124	Conservatory	48.4
125	Kildare	47.5
126	87th	47.3
127	Halsted (Green Line - Ashland/63rd Branch)	46
127	Central (Green Line - Lake Street)	46
129	69th	39.7
130	Ashland/63rd	38.8
131	Kedzie-Homan	38.7
132	Laramie	37.7
133	Forest Park	37.3
134	Pulaski (Green Line - Lake Street)	36.6
135	Cicero (Blue Line - Forest Park)	36.4
136	79th	35.3
137	Pulaski (Blue Line - Forest Park)	31.4
138	Cicero (Green Line - Lake Street)	29.9
139	King Drive	28.7
140	95/Dan Ryan	28.2
141	63rd	25.7
142	Kedzie (Green Line - Lake Street)	24.9
143	Lawrence	18.4