Chicago CTA ridership grew 3% in 2025, the fourth straight year of growth across the regional transit system. Here’s the latest CTA ridership data and where things stand heading into 2026.
Four years after pandemic ridership lows, Chicago’s transit network is on its strongest growth stretch since recovery began. The Regional Transit Authority just released its 2025 numbers, and Chicago has carried that growth into 2026.
We built Transit Stats to give individual CTA riders insight into their own commutes. But the regional numbers tell a bigger story. Here’s what the system-wide CTA ridership data shows, and how it lines up with what we’re seeing in our own rider dataset.
Chicago Transit Hit 373.5 Million Rides in 2025
The regional system (CTA, Metra, and Pace combined) recorded 373.5 million fixed-route rides in 2025, a jump of 12.3 million rides over 2024. Daily ridership crossed the one million mark on 236 days of the year.
- Total regional rides: 373.5 million
- Year-over-year increase: +12.3 million
- Days over 1 million rides: 236
- CTA systemwide ridership: 319.2 million
“For the fourth year in a row, we have seen ridership increases,” said RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden. That four-year streak means Chicago transit is no longer in recovery mode. It’s in growth mode.
CTA Bus Outpaces Rail in Total Volume
Across the CTA system, riders took 319.2 million trips in 2025. Bus ridership came in at 184 million, while rail ridership totaled 135.2 million. That works out to a 58/42 split favoring buses over the Chicago L train.
- CTA bus rides: 184 million (58%)
- CTA rail rides: 135.2 million (42%)
That ratio actually flips when you look at our own Transit Stats ridership data, where rail edges out bus 55/45. The difference is sample bias. Our users skew toward riders who actively track their commutes, and GPS tracking is especially accurate on fixed rail routes, so trains are slightly overrepresented in our dataset.
Total Ridership by Agency in 2025
Here’s how 2025’s 373.5 million rides break down across Chicago’s regional transit agencies (in millions):
- CTA Bus: 184 million rides
- CTA Rail: 135.2 million rides
- Metra: 38 million rides
- Pace: 16.4 million rides
The CTA carries the vast majority of regional transit ridership. Combined, CTA bus and rail accounted for roughly 85% of all 2025 fixed-route trips across the entire region.
Rail Ridership Grew Faster Than Bus
Not every part of the system grew at the same pace. Metra led with an 8% year-over-year increase, followed by CTA rail at 6%. CTA bus posted a smaller 1% gain, and Pace saw ridership dip 3%.
- Metra: +8% year over year
- CTA Rail: +6%
- CTA Overall: +3%
- CTA Bus: +1%
- Pace: -3%
The faster growth on rail tracks with what we see in our own data. The Red Line remains the single most heavily used line in the CTA network, and it’s a major driver of overall rail volume.
CTA Bus Recovery Is Still Below 2019
Even with 2025’s growth, CTA bus ridership remains at 78% of pre-pandemic levels. Pace is recovering more slowly at 67%. Rail has rebounded faster than bus in most major U.S. cities since 2020, and Chicago is no exception.
For Chicago, that gap is significant. The CTA bus network is enormous, with more than 100 routes covering neighborhoods across the city. Closing the recovery gap could mean tens of millions of additional rides per year. The busiest CTA bus routes are already running at near pre-pandemic levels, but the broader network has more room to grow.
Accessible Station Upgrades Drove a 22% Ridership Jump
One of the most notable data points from the RTA report was the impact of accessibility upgrades. From August through December 2025, accessible rail stations recorded 368,000 more rides than the same period the year before, a 22% increase.
Better access, more riders. It’s one of the cleanest cause-and-effect signals in the entire report.
Thursday Was the Fastest-Growing Day of the Week
At the regional level, Thursday saw the largest day-of-week percentage increase in 2025. Tuesday and Wednesday had the highest overall ride totals.
That pattern lines up almost exactly with what we found in our own CTA rush hour data. Thursday was the busiest day for Transit Stats users too, and weekday ridership peaked midweek. The same shape shows up in our small-sample dataset and the system-wide numbers.
The NITA Act Is Set to Fuel Continued Growth
Looking ahead into 2026, the recently signed NITA Act (Northern Illinois Transit Act) is the biggest factor to watch. The legislation, signed in December 2025, provides an estimated $1.2 billion in annual operating funding for the regional transit system, plus $180 million per year for capital projects.
For CTA riders, that funding stabilizes service and pays for improvements that have been on hold. Combined with the ongoing accessibility upgrades, that should keep ridership growing through 2026.
What This Means for Chicago CTA Riders
Four straight years of ridership growth says something concrete. Chicagoans are riding the CTA more than at any point since the pandemic, and 2025’s 319.2 million rides shows the recovery has turned into real, sustained growth.
Our small slice of that picture comes from individual riders. Transit Stats has tracked over 23,000 personal CTA rides, giving us a rider’s-eye view of how Chicagoans actually use the system. See our full CTA ridership data breakdown, our most common commute routes, and the CO2 savings every ride generates.