Crosslake Light Rail Pushes Sound Transit to Most-Used Light Rail System in US
Light rail ridership in the Seattle region has exploded following expansion of the 2 Line across Lake Washington, which connected Bellevue and Seattle for the first time on March 28. In fact, the ridership boost was so pronounced that Sound Transit leapfrogged its peers to become the most ridden light rail system in the United States.
"Seattle's light rail & streetcar lines carried 4.8 million riders in April—a 44% increase above March, after Link Line 2 was extended to connect Seattle & Bellevue across Lake Washington," Urban Institute researcher Yonah Freemark said in a social media post. "Seattle's light rail & streetcar lines are now the most ridden in the nation, above LA, Boston, or San Diego."
Link approaching 5 million unlinked trips per month works out to roughly 160,000 daily trips. That was enough to surpass Los Angeles for the busiest light rail system in the country. Those numbers include the 1 and 2 Lines but also the T Line streetcar Sound Transit operates in Tacoma.
Of course, several heavy rail systems in the U.S. have higher ridership, with the New York City lapping the field. Still, Link's big ridership boom has pushed it to the eighth busiest rail system (whether heavy or light) in the nation.
https://www.theurbanist.org/sound-transit-most-used-light-rail-system-in-us/