Commuter Rail at Chicago Metra
Chicago Metra carried 38,048,502 commuter rail boardings in FY2025 at $26.98 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.
Ridership
This service reports annually.
Monthly boardings
NTD publishes monthly figures for full reporters only, so this service has annual data alone.
Annual boardings
Ten-year series
Cost
This service against every commuter 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 | 25,344,941 | 544,512,427 | 1,072,236 | $794,364,504 | $31.34 | $27.00 | 13.8% | 799 |
| Purchased transportation | 12,703,561 | 282,452,665 | 428,739 | $232,008,069 | $18.26 | $13.11 | 28.2% | 517 |
Safety and reliability
For this service alone.
Miles between failures
Revenue miles divided by mechanical failures. Higher is better.
Full series
Every year Chicago Metra reported this service.
| Year | Boardings | Passenger miles | Revenue miles | Revenue hours | Operating cost | Fares | Cost / ride | Subsidy / ride | Fare recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 38,048,502 | 826,965,092 | 43,951,877 | 1,500,975 | $1,026,372,573 | $175,363,657 | $26.98 | $22.37 | 17.1% |
| 2024 | 35,051,943 | 762,111,032 | 44,110,638 | 1,506,554 | $988,718,286 | $163,944,616 | $28.21 | $23.53 | 16.6% |
| 2023 | 31,988,076 | 706,105,653 | 43,163,928 | 1,457,897 | $896,609,102 | $148,980,961 | $28.03 | $23.37 | 16.6% |
| 2022 | 23,791,702 | 518,254,909 | 38,740,615 | 1,304,405 | $822,547,900 | $126,649,459 | $34.57 | $29.25 | 15.4% |
| 2021 | 14,080,750 | 304,989,464 | 32,838,276 | 1,106,820 | $718,324,077 | $76,440,021 | $51.01 | $45.59 | 10.6% |
| 2020 | 16,731,031 | 359,336,190 | 30,661,751 | 1,022,657 | $710,195,494 | $102,350,491 | $42.45 | $36.33 | 14.4% |
| 2019 | 61,456,663 | 1,365,137,921 | 44,605,656 | 1,507,232 | $782,173,784 | $365,935,097 | $12.73 | $6.77 | 46.8% |
| 2018 | 68,446,239 | 1,518,703,416 | 43,674,979 | 1,452,101 | $761,950,311 | $370,028,145 | $11.13 | $5.73 | 48.6% |
| 2017 | 70,592,215 | 1,577,342,949 | 43,688,918 | 1,437,803 | $742,720,322 | $355,260,071 | $10.52 | $5.49 | 47.8% |
| 2016 | 72,289,606 | 1,616,847,589 | 43,521,315 | 1,429,448 | $722,591,592 | $341,966,405 | $10.00 | $5.27 | 47.3% |
| 2015 | 72,631,172 | 1,623,729,348 | 43,419,650 | 1,424,298 | $706,682,336 | $337,413,270 | $9.73 | $5.08 | 47.7% |