Chicago City Wire

Montrose (Blue Line - O'Hare) station ridership increased by 77.2 percent during June 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 533.3 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)	533.3
2	Grand (Red Line - North Side)	440.4
3	Merchandise Mart	375
4	Harrison	346.2
5	Damen (Blue Line - O'Hare)	299.1
6	Southport	292
7	Argyle	278.1
8	Morgan	272.5
9	Armitage	265.5
10	Noyes	264.3
11	Quincy/Wells	261.9
12	Grand (Blue Line - O'Hare)	257.5
13	Sox-35th	253.3
14	Fullerton	251.6
15	Chicago (Red Line - North Side)	249.4
16	Cermak-Chinatown	245.4
17	California (Blue Line - O'Hare)	243.7
18	Sedgwick	243.4
19	Division	243.3
20	Washington	235.9
21	Chicago (Blue Line - O'Hare)	235.8
22	Lake	232.8
23	Foster	224.8
24	State/Lake	224
25	Monroe (Red Line - State Street Subway)	211.9
26	Damen (Brown Line)	203.8
27	Clark/Division	202.4
28	Belmont (Red Line - North Side)	197.6
28	Logan Square	197.6
30	Paulina	196.8
31	Clark/Lake	196.1
32	North/Clybourn	195.2
33	Western (Blue Line - O'Hare)	191.9
34	Wellington	189.5
35	Monroe (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	188.9
36	Addison (Brown Line)	187.9
37	Diversey	186.5
38	Jackson (Red Line - State Street Subway)	185.7
38	Linden	185.7
40	O'Hare Airport	181.9
41	Jackson (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	181.4
42	Racine	179
43	Montrose (Brown Line)	177.7
44	LaSalle	174.8
45	Clinton (Blue Line - Forest Park)	173.7
46	Irving Park (Brown Line)	172.7
47	Sheridan	168.1
48	Clinton (Green Line - Lake Street)	167.2
49	Washington/Wells	166.6
50	Rockwell	161.1
51	Adams/Wabash	159.3
52	Francisco	158.2
53	Washington/Wabash	152.2
54	Damen (Pink Line)	152
55	UIC-Halsted	145.5
56	Ridgeland	143.8
57	18th	140.6
58	Oak Park (Green Line - Lake Street)	140
59	Harold Washington Library	138.7
60	35-Bronzeville-IIT	133.2
61	Western (Brown Line)	127.7
62	Midway Airport	126
63	Belmont (Blue Line - O'Hare)	125.1
64	Loyola	123.4
65	Roosevelt	119.8
66	LaSalle/Van Buren	119.7
67	Irving Park (Blue Line - O'Hare)	118.9
67	35th/Archer	118.9
69	Chicago (Brown Line)	118.4
70	Dempster	118.2
71	Dempster-Skokie	116.2
72	Polk	115.1
73	Davis	112.7
74	Main	112.1
75	Bryn Mawr	111.1
76	Addison (Blue Line - O'Hare)	109.1
77	Cumberland	108.3
78	Halsted (Orange Line)	108
79	Thorndale	107.3
80	Cermak	106.3
81	Wilson	105.7
81	California (Pink Line)	105.7
83	Oak Park (Blue Line - Forest Park)	105.2
84	Harlem (Blue Line - O'Hare)	103.9
85	Pulaski (Orange Line)	102.2
86	Granville	102
87	Rosemont	101.3
88	Kedzie (Orange Line)	99.6
89	Ashland (Green Line - Lake Street)	94.1
90	Kedzie (Pink Line)	93.2
91	Jarvis	91.7
92	Kedzie (Brown Line)	89.3
93	South Boulevard	89.2
94	Oakton	88.7
94	Medical Center	88.7
96	Morse	88.6
97	Ashland (Orange Line)	86.7
98	Kimball	85.7
99	Central (Purple Line - Evanston)	84.7
100	Western (Orange Line)	84.5
101	Jefferson Park	84
101	Western (Pink Line)	84
103	54th/Cermak	80.5
104	Montrose (Blue Line - O'Hare)	77.2
105	Conservatory	75.8
106	Central Park	69.1
107	Garfield (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	66
108	Garfield (Green Line - South Elevated)	62.1
109	Cicero (Pink Line)	61.3
110	California (Green Line - Lake Street)	59.2
111	Western (Blue Line - Forest Park)	55.6
112	East 63rd-Cottage Grove	55.1
113	Austin (Green Line - Lake Street)	54.1
114	Harlem (Green Line - Lake Street)	53.2
115	Pulaski (Pink Line)	52.7
116	Kostner	50.6
117	Austin (Blue Line - Forest Park)	50.3
118	Howard	49.2
119	Indiana	49.1
120	51st	47.2
121	43rd	41.7
122	87th	40.5
123	Halsted (Green Line - Ashland/63rd Branch)	39.4
124	47th (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	38.7
125	47th (Green Line - South Elevated)	37.7
126	Harlem (Blue Line - Forest Park)	36.7
127	Kedzie-Homan	36.3
128	Kildare	33.9
129	Forest Park	31.9
130	Cicero (Green Line - Lake Street)	30.4
131	Ashland/63rd	30.3
132	Pulaski (Green Line - Lake Street)	30
133	79th	29.3
134	Cicero (Blue Line - Forest Park)	28.9
135	Laramie	28.7
136	69th	27.4
137	63rd	26.4
138	Central (Green Line - Lake Street)	26.2
139	95/Dan Ryan	20.3
140	Pulaski (Blue Line - Forest Park)	20.2
141	King Drive	16.4
142	Kedzie (Green Line - Lake Street)	15.8