Chicago City Wire

Wellington station ridership increased by 138.4 percent during October 2021 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).

UIC-Halsted station saw the largest increase in ridership with a 342.7 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 2021. 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	UIC-Halsted	342.7
2	Fullerton	268.9
3	Racine	249.8
4	Harrison	223.6
5	Noyes	209.2
6	Addison (Red Line - North Side)	205.4
7	Foster	205.1
8	Jackson (Red Line - State Street Subway)	200.4
9	Cermak	199.9
10	Merchandise Mart	195
11	Quincy/Wells	191.3
12	Armitage	190.8
13	Southport	182
14	LaSalle	178.2
15	Grand (Red Line - North Side)	177.8
16	Harold Washington Library	175.7
17	Morgan	172
18	Argyle	165.1
19	Sedgwick	164.6
20	Adams/Wabash	164.3
21	Cermak-Chinatown	164
22	Monroe (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	157
23	Rockwell	152.4
24	Damen (Brown Line)	152.2
25	Division	152
26	Addison (Brown Line)	151.4
27	Damen (Blue Line - O'Hare)	146.8
28	Jackson (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	143.7
29	Clark/Division	142.3
30	Washington	142.1
31	California (Blue Line - O'Hare)	141.6
32	Monroe (Red Line - State Street Subway)	140.1
33	Belmont (Red Line - North Side)	139.7
34	Diversey	139
35	Wellington	138.4
36	State/Lake	135.6
37	Western (Blue Line - O'Hare)	134.2
38	Irving Park (Brown Line)	133.5
39	Francisco	133
40	Loyola	131.6
41	O'Hare Airport	130.4
42	Sox-35th	130.1
43	Washington/Wells	129.3
44	Clinton (Blue Line - Forest Park)	128.1
45	Lake	125
46	Montrose (Blue Line - O'Hare)	123.9
47	35-Bronzeville-IIT	122.1
48	Grand (Blue Line - O'Hare)	121.6
49	Clinton (Green Line - Lake Street)	121
49	Clark/Lake	121
49	Paulina	121
52	Chicago (Blue Line - O'Hare)	114.8
53	LaSalle/Van Buren	114
54	Chicago (Red Line - North Side)	112.7
55	Montrose (Brown Line)	111.6
56	Oak Park (Green Line - Lake Street)	110.3
57	Sheridan	109.6
58	Addison (Blue Line - O'Hare)	107.8
59	Logan Square	106.8
60	Wilson	105.3
61	Granville	102.1
62	Halsted (Orange Line)	101.7
63	Midway Airport	99.3
64	Damen (Pink Line)	98.8
64	Washington/Wabash	98.8
66	Chicago (Brown Line)	98.1
67	Oak Park (Blue Line - Forest Park)	97
68	North/Clybourn	94.3
69	Roosevelt	91.4
70	Ridgeland	91.3
71	Pulaski (Orange Line)	90.3
72	18th	88.9
73	Kedzie (Brown Line)	88
74	35th/Archer	87.2
75	Cumberland	82.5
76	Main	81.4
76	Oakton	81.4
78	Dempster	81.3
79	Thorndale	80.8
80	Harlem (Blue Line - O'Hare)	79.9
81	Davis	75.7
82	Belmont (Blue Line - O'Hare)	74.9
83	Kimball	74.3
84	Medical Center	73.8
85	Linden	73.7
86	Bryn Mawr	72.8
87	Ashland (Green Line - Lake Street)	71.5
88	Kedzie (Orange Line)	68.2
89	Western (Blue Line - Forest Park)	66.6
90	Dempster-Skokie	64.6
90	Western (Brown Line)	64.6
92	Polk	63.2
93	Rosemont	60.4
94	Central (Purple Line - Evanston)	59.6
95	Jarvis	59
96	Morse	57.8
97	Irving Park (Blue Line - O'Hare)	57.2
98	South Boulevard	52.6
99	California (Pink Line)	50.3
100	Western (Orange Line)	49
101	Jefferson Park	47.4
102	54th/Cermak	46
103	Garfield (Green Line - South Elevated)	45.3
104	Ashland (Orange Line)	44.7
105	Western (Pink Line)	40.4
106	East 63rd-Cottage Grove	38.5
107	Central Park	36
107	Austin (Green Line - Lake Street)	36
109	Kedzie (Pink Line)	35.3
110	Kedzie (Green Line - Lake Street)	35.1
111	Indiana	33.5
112	Howard	32.3
113	Garfield (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	32
113	Austin (Blue Line - Forest Park)	32
115	Harlem (Green Line - Lake Street)	31
116	51st	28.3
117	47th (Green Line - South Elevated)	27
118	Halsted (Green Line - Ashland/63rd Branch)	25.7
119	47th (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	25
120	43rd	24.4
121	Kostner	24.3
122	California (Green Line - Lake Street)	21.7
123	Cicero (Pink Line)	19.2
124	Ashland/63rd	16.1
125	Forest Park	16
125	Pulaski (Pink Line)	16
125	Central (Green Line - Lake Street)	16
125	69th	16
129	Laramie	15
130	Conservatory	14.4
131	King Drive	14
132	87th	12
133	63rd	11.3
134	Cicero (Green Line - Lake Street)	11
135	79th	8.1
136	Cicero (Blue Line - Forest Park)	5.9
137	95/Dan Ryan	5.8
137	Pulaski (Green Line - Lake Street)	5.8
139	Harlem (Blue Line - Forest Park)	5.5
140	Kildare	0.8