Chicago City Wire

Kedzie (Pink Line) station ridership increased by 41.6 percent during November 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 405.3 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 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	405.3
2	Fullerton	282.6
3	Quincy/Wells	276.3
4	Merchandise Mart	269.1
5	Racine	265.6
6	Noyes	261.9
7	Harrison	240.7
8	Foster	232.4
9	Addison (Red Line - North Side)	230.8
10	Armitage	229.5
11	Monroe (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	224.1
12	LaSalle	219.6
13	Southport	214.4
14	Damen (Blue Line - O'Hare)	210.4
15	Grand (Red Line - North Side)	209.9
16	Washington	206.3
17	Morgan	204.4
18	Damen (Brown Line)	196.1
19	Addison (Brown Line)	194.9
20	Division	194.7
21	California (Blue Line - O'Hare)	191.5
22	Washington/Wells	190.9
23	Clark/Lake	190.8
24	Sedgwick	190.5
25	Irving Park (Brown Line)	189.6
26	Jackson (Red Line - State Street Subway)	189.2
27	Chicago (Blue Line - O'Hare)	186.1
28	Western (Blue Line - O'Hare)	185.3
29	Argyle	184.5
30	Adams/Wabash	184.3
31	Monroe (Red Line - State Street Subway)	179.5
32	Rockwell	179.4
33	Harold Washington Library	177.7
34	Cermak-Chinatown	177.5
35	Diversey	172.7
36	State/Lake	172.3
37	Grand (Blue Line - O'Hare)	169.8
37	Wellington	169.8
39	Jackson (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	167.8
40	Lake	165.3
41	Loyola	164.6
42	Belmont (Red Line - North Side)	161.7
43	Paulina	160
44	Logan Square	156.5
45	Clinton (Blue Line - Forest Park)	153.6
46	Francisco	152.5
47	Montrose (Blue Line - O'Hare)	151.2
48	Clark/Division	150.1
49	Clinton (Green Line - Lake Street)	149
50	LaSalle/Van Buren	148
51	O'Hare Airport	145.8
52	Montrose (Brown Line)	145.7
53	Washington/Wabash	145.5
54	Chicago (Red Line - North Side)	142.2
55	Addison (Blue Line - O'Hare)	139.2
56	Granville	136.5
57	Chicago (Brown Line)	133.4
58	Ridgeland	130.6
59	Sheridan	129.1
60	Halsted (Orange Line)	128.9
61	Wilson	128.5
62	Oak Park (Blue Line - Forest Park)	127.8
63	Oak Park (Green Line - Lake Street)	126.7
64	Midway Airport	125.1
65	Pulaski (Orange Line)	122.3
66	Damen (Pink Line)	119.5
67	Cermak	119.1
68	35-Bronzeville-IIT	118.7
69	35th/Archer	117.4
70	Linden	114.6
70	Main	114.6
72	North/Clybourn	112.6
73	Western (Brown Line)	110.9
74	Thorndale	109.1
75	Cumberland	106.7
76	Belmont (Blue Line - O'Hare)	105.9
77	Medical Center	103.1
78	Davis	102.2
79	Kedzie (Brown Line)	97
80	18th	96.4
81	Harlem (Blue Line - O'Hare)	96.2
82	Bryn Mawr	95.5
83	Oakton	95
83	Central (Purple Line - Evanston)	95
85	Sox-35th	91.4
86	Dempster	91.2
87	Ashland (Green Line - Lake Street)	90.7
88	Roosevelt	90
89	Kimball	87.9
90	Polk	87.4
90	Kedzie (Orange Line)	87.4
92	Morse	86.1
93	Dempster-Skokie	85.6
94	Jarvis	80.7
95	South Boulevard	79.4
96	Irving Park (Blue Line - O'Hare)	78.1
97	Western (Orange Line)	76.5
98	Western (Blue Line - Forest Park)	76.3
99	Rosemont	71.8
100	Jefferson Park	64.8
101	California (Pink Line)	61
102	Ashland (Orange Line)	60.1
103	54th/Cermak	58.3
104	Western (Pink Line)	54.3
105	Austin (Green Line - Lake Street)	50.1
106	Garfield (Green Line - South Elevated)	49.5
107	Indiana	47.5
108	Central Park	47.4
109	California (Green Line - Lake Street)	45.6
110	East 63rd-Cottage Grove	43.1
111	Austin (Blue Line - Forest Park)	42.8
112	Kedzie (Pink Line)	41.6
113	Kedzie (Green Line - Lake Street)	41.3
114	Howard	40.1
115	Garfield (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	38.5
116	Harlem (Green Line - Lake Street)	36.5
117	51st	36
118	43rd	33.1
119	47th (Green Line - South Elevated)	32.3
120	47th (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	29.6
121	Cicero (Pink Line)	28.6
122	Pulaski (Pink Line)	28.5
123	Kostner	27.1
124	Forest Park	25.7
125	Cicero (Green Line - Lake Street)	22.9
126	69th	21.2
127	87th	20.8
128	63rd	19.2
129	Conservatory	18.9
130	Central (Green Line - Lake Street)	18.3
131	Laramie	17.2
132	Halsted (Green Line - Ashland/63rd Branch)	16.8
133	Kildare	16.6
134	79th	16.1
135	Ashland/63rd	15.1
136	Harlem (Blue Line - Forest Park)	14.1
137	95/Dan Ryan	13.5
137	King Drive	13.5
139	Cicero (Blue Line - Forest Park)	11.6
140	Pulaski (Green Line - Lake Street)	10.3
141	Kedzie-Homan	3.2