Light Rail at Charlotte Area Transit System
Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) carried 6,225,751 light rail boardings in FY2025 at $8.50 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.
Ridership
Monthly data through August 2026.
This year against the last five
Same months on one axis, so seasonality does not read as a trend
Annual boardings
Ten-year series
Cost
This service against every light rail operator in the country.
Cost per ride
This agency against the national figure for the same mode
Fare recovery
Share of operating cost covered by fares
Directly operated and purchased service, FY2025
NTD reports these separately. An agency that contracts a service out reports the contract price, which bundles costs a directly operating agency reports line by line.
| Service | Boardings | Passenger miles | Revenue hours | Operating cost | Cost / ride | Subsidy / ride | Fare recovery | Vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Directly operated | 6,225,751 | 31,104,757 | 108,478 | $52,947,562 | $8.50 | $7.85 | 7.7% | 20 |
Safety and reliability
For this service alone.
Events by year
Complete calendar years only
Miles between failures
Revenue miles divided by mechanical failures. Higher is better.
Full series
Every year Charlotte Area Transit System reported this service.
| Year | Boardings | Passenger miles | Revenue miles | Revenue hours | Operating cost | Fares | Cost / ride | Subsidy / ride | Fare recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6,225,751 | 31,104,757 | 1,623,104 | 108,478 | $52,947,562 | $4,063,991 | $8.50 | $7.85 | 7.7% |
| 2024 | 5,804,651 | 29,380,924 | 1,596,954 | 106,646 | $58,562,405 | $4,459,762 | $10.09 | $9.32 | 7.6% |
| 2023 | 5,084,602 | 24,678,260 | 1,612,439 | 104,032 | $58,948,961 | $6,666,028 | $11.59 | $10.28 | 11.3% |
| 2022 | 3,878,989 | 18,439,944 | 1,648,205 | 109,873 | $38,687,065 | $4,645,173 | $9.97 | $8.78 | 12% |
| 2021 | 2,599,631 | 13,053,696 | 1,668,123 | 116,223 | $36,835,188 | $3,161,931 | $14.17 | $12.95 | 8.6% |
| 2020 | 7,261,944 | 37,638,865 | 2,110,955 | 130,784 | $37,895,912 | $6,271,787 | $5.22 | $4.35 | 16.6% |
| 2019 | 8,006,852 | 45,024,652 | 2,308,145 | 141,176 | $35,607,528 | $7,643,956 | $4.45 | $3.49 | 21.5% |
| 2018 | 5,788,961 | 29,838,989 | 1,420,469 | 89,679 | $21,366,867 | $3,974,025 | $3.69 | $3.00 | 18.6% |
| 2017 | 4,770,937 | 22,711,947 | 1,020,308 | 66,641 | $14,291,472 | $3,599,048 | $3.00 | $2.24 | 25.2% |
| 2016 | 4,899,790 | 23,197,226 | 990,324 | 65,043 | $14,346,887 | $3,907,008 | $2.93 | $2.13 | 27.2% |
| 2015 | 5,018,421 | 25,598,708 | 1,018,935 | 66,612 | $14,037,475 | $5,053,583 | $2.80 | $1.79 | 36% |