West Cook News

Ashland/63rd station ridership increased by 4.7 percent during January 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).

Fullerton station saw the largest increase in ridership with a 179.7 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 2021 to 2022 (%)
1	Fullerton	179.7
2	Harrison	164.4
3	UIC-Halsted	162.5
3	Racine	162.5
5	Merchandise Mart	140.8
6	Armitage	138.5
7	Southport	134.7
8	Quincy/Wells	134.5
9	Grand (Red Line - North Side)	126.3
10	Morgan	125.8
11	Damen (Blue Line - O'Hare)	124.1
12	Harold Washington Library	118.1
13	Montrose (Blue Line - O'Hare)	115.8
14	Sedgwick	112.9
15	Jackson (Red Line - State Street Subway)	112.7
16	Argyle	112.2
17	Chicago (Blue Line - O'Hare)	111.7
18	LaSalle	111.3
19	Adams/Wabash	111
20	Damen (Brown Line)	108.8
21	California (Blue Line - O'Hare)	107.2
22	Washington	104
23	Addison (Brown Line)	103.3
24	Noyes	102.1
24	Irving Park (Brown Line)	102.1
26	Division	102
27	Foster	99.7
28	Monroe (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	98.1
29	Western (Blue Line - O'Hare)	97.3
30	Addison (Red Line - North Side)	94.6
31	Clark/Division	93.4
32	Clark/Lake	92.6
33	Cermak-Chinatown	90.6
34	Diversey	90.4
35	Monroe (Red Line - State Street Subway)	89.5
35	Grand (Blue Line - O'Hare)	89.5
37	Washington/Wells	88.6
38	State/Lake	85.8
39	Logan Square	85.4
40	Lake	84.1
41	Rockwell	84
41	Montrose (Brown Line)	84
41	Wellington	84
44	Belmont (Red Line - North Side)	83.2
45	Clinton (Green Line - Lake Street)	83.1
46	Paulina	82.2
47	Jackson (Blue Line - Dearborn Subway)	82
48	Wilson	80.1
48	LaSalle/Van Buren	80.1
50	Sheridan	78.2
51	O'Hare Airport	76
51	Chicago (Brown Line)	76
51	Addison (Blue Line - O'Hare)	76
54	Clinton (Blue Line - Forest Park)	75.4
55	Damen (Pink Line)	75
56	Francisco	70.9
57	North/Clybourn	67.4
57	Washington/Wabash	67.4
59	35th/Archer	63.3
60	Pulaski (Orange Line)	62.1
61	Chicago (Red Line - North Side)	60.8
62	Halsted (Orange Line)	59.4
63	Ridgeland	58.1
64	35-Bronzeville-IIT	56.9
64	Midway Airport	56.9
66	Cermak	56.8
67	18th	56.7
67	Western (Brown Line)	56.7
69	Main	56.2
70	Belmont (Blue Line - O'Hare)	54.6
71	Thorndale	54.4
72	Oak Park (Blue Line - Forest Park)	54
73	Kedzie (Brown Line)	53.2
74	Loyola	53.1
75	Granville	52.9
76	Kimball	52.4
77	Linden	51.7
78	Ashland (Green Line - Lake Street)	51.2
79	Roosevelt	50.6
80	Davis	48.5
81	Harlem (Blue Line - O'Hare)	48.3
82	Jarvis	46.9
83	Sox-35th	46.7
84	Dempster	46.2
84	Medical Center	46.2
86	Oak Park (Green Line - Lake Street)	46
87	Western (Blue Line - Forest Park)	45.4
88	Bryn Mawr	45
89	Morse	43.9
90	Cumberland	43.8
91	Kedzie (Orange Line)	43.7
92	Oakton	39
92	Western (Orange Line)	39
94	South Boulevard	37.4
95	Rosemont	34.1
96	California (Pink Line)	32.3
97	Polk	32
97	Garfield (Green Line - South Elevated)	32
99	Jefferson Park	31
99	Irving Park (Blue Line - O'Hare)	31
99	Kedzie (Green Line - Lake Street)	31
102	Kedzie (Pink Line)	28.9
103	Ashland (Orange Line)	28.4
104	Dempster-Skokie	28.2
105	54th/Cermak	26.9
106	51st	22.3
107	Central (Purple Line - Evanston)	21.6
108	Western (Pink Line)	21
108	Austin (Green Line - Lake Street)	21
110	Central Park	20
110	Indiana	20
112	Garfield (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	18.2
113	43rd	17.4
114	Pulaski (Pink Line)	16.5
115	Howard	16
116	47th (Red Line - Dan Ryan)	15.4
117	47th (Green Line - South Elevated)	11.4
118	California (Green Line - Lake Street)	11
119	63rd	10.4
120	Harlem (Green Line - Lake Street)	10.3
121	Austin (Blue Line - Forest Park)	10.1
122	Cicero (Pink Line)	9.1
123	Central (Green Line - Lake Street)	7.8
124	69th	7.3
125	79th	5.4
126	87th	5.3
127	Halsted (Green Line - Ashland/63rd Branch)	5.1
128	Ashland/63rd	4.7
129	Cicero (Green Line - Lake Street)	4.6
130	Kildare	3.2
130	East 63rd-Cottage Grove	3.2
132	Conservatory	2.8
133	Kedzie-Homan	2.6
134	Laramie	1.2
135	95/Dan Ryan	0.3