List of North American rapid transit systems

See also: List of North American light rail systems

This is a list of North American rapid transit systems by ridership. These heavy rail or rapid transit systems are also known as metro or subway systems. This list of systems in North America does not include light rail, even when they are integrated with heavy rail. Daily and annual ridership figures are based on "average weekday unlinked passenger trips" (where transfers between lines are counted as two separate passenger "boardings" or "trips"), unless otherwise indicated. For metro systems in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Canada, the annual ridership figures for 2023 and average weekday ridership figures for the First Quarter (Q1) of 2024 come from the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) ridership reports statistics,^[1] unless otherwise noted. Ridership figures for Mexico come from the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (INEGI), specifically the Economy and Productive Sectors - Passenger Transit information.^[2] Ridership figures for the Dominican Republic come from the Directorate of Operations Santo Domingo Metro report for the year 2013.^[3]

	System	Country	City/area served	Annual ridership (2023)[1][4]	Avg. daily weekday boardings (Q1 2024)[1][4]	System length	Avg. daily boardings per mile (Q3 2023)	Year opened	Stations	Lines
1	New York City Subway	United States	New York City	2,040,132,000	7,008,000	248 miles (399 km)[5]	25,251	1904[note 1]	472[6]	24[6]
2	Mexico City Metro	Mexico	Mexico City	1,115,300,000 [4]	2,397,892[7]	140.75 miles (226.5 km)[8]	17,037	1969	195[9]	12[9]
3	Montreal Metro	Canada	Montreal	330,767,700	1,075,300	43 miles (69 km)[10]	21,816	1966	68	4
4	Toronto subway	Canada	Toronto	331,789,000	1,101,700	47.8 miles (76.9 km)[11]	20,305	1954[11]	70	3
5	Washington Metro	United States	Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area	166,654,000	559,400	129 miles (208 km)[12]	3,683	1976[12]	98[12]	6
6	SkyTrain	Canada	Vancouver	149,066,500	444,900	49.5 miles (79.6 km)	9,030	1985	53[13]	3[13]
7	Chicago 'L'	United States	Chicago	127,463,400	360,100	102.8 miles (165.4 km)[14]	3,780	1892[14]	145[14]	8[14]
8	Metrorrey	Mexico	Monterrey	138,709,000[4]	380,024 [note 2]	25 miles (40 km)[15]	25,605	1991[16]	40[15]	3[15]
9	MBTA subway[note 3] (Blue, Orange, and Red Lines)	United States	Boston	84,251,600	291,400	39.5 miles (63.6 km)[17]	7,187	1901	53[17]	4[17]
10	BART	United States	San Francisco Bay Area	50,791,900	167,700	131.4 miles (211.5 km)[18]	1,280	1972[18]	48[18]	6[19]
11	SEPTA Metro[20][21][note 3] (L, B, and M)	United States	Philadelphia	59,009,800	219,000	36.7 miles (59.1 km)[20][22]	4,733	1907	75[21]	3[21]
12	PATH	United States	Jersey City, Newark, NJ	62,489,400	197,300	13.8 miles (22.2 km)[23]	13,449	1908	13[24]	5[24]
13	MARTA rail	United States	Atlanta	29,416,400	87,100	48 miles (77 km)[25]	1,952	1979	38[25]	4
14	Panama Metro	Panama	Panama City	91,932,890[26]	180,000[27][needs update]	22.9 miles (36.9 km)[28]	21,176	2014	31[29]	2[30]
15	Santo Domingo Metro	Dominican Republic	Santo Domingo	61,270,054[3][needs update]	177,844[3] [note 4][needs update]	17.0 miles (27.4 km)[31][32]	10,461	2009	30[31][32]	2[31][32]
16	Metro Rail[note 3] (B and D Lines)	United States	Los Angeles	22,471,200	64,000	17.4 miles (28.0 km)[33]	3,667	1993[33]	16[33]	2[33]
17	Miami Metrorail	United States	Miami	14,911,300	53,200	24.9 miles (40.1 km)[34]	2,111	1984	23[34]	2
18	PATCO Speedline	United States	Philadelphia	5,640,600	18,300	14.2 miles (22.9 km)[35]	1,268	1936[35]	13[35]	1[35]
19	Staten Island Railway	United States	New York City	4,743,000	17,700	14.0 miles (22.5 km)[5]	1,279	1860	22[5]	1[5]
20	Baltimore Metro SubwayLink[note 3]	United States	Baltimore	5,487,000	17,900	15.5 miles (24.9 km)[36]	884	1983	14[36]	1[36]
21	RTA Rapid Transit[note 3] (Red Line)	United States	Cleveland	3,151,500	9,300	19 miles (31 km)[37]	553	1955	18[37]	1[37]
22	Tren Urbano	Puerto Rico (United States)	San Juan	4,438,400	19,600	10.7 miles (17.2 km)	1,318	2004	16	1

For a given population size, New York, some Mexican and Canadian cities tend to have higher public transit usage.
Note: This data goes beyond rapid transit and encompasses all public transport, including modes such as buses.

See also

• List of metro systems
• List of United States rapid transit systems by ridership
• List of Latin American rail transit systems by ridership
• List of tram and light rail transit systems
• List of North American light rail systems by ridership
• List of United States light rail systems by ridership
• List of suburban and commuter rail systems
• List of United States commuter rail systems by ridership

Notes

1. The current system incorporates elevated sections built in 1870.
2. This system does not have update data of the avg. daily weekday boardings, this number correspond to the regular average.
3. This rapid transit system is integrated with a light rail system; only the parts of the system that are rapid transit/metro, and that are not light rail, are counted in the statistics presented here.
4. This is the Average Daily Ridership figure, not an Average Weekday Ridership figure – it is averaged from the Q4 2014 Total Ridership figure for this system.