System Ridership Annual ridership figures for CTA rail, CTA bus, Metra, Pace, and Pace ADA transit systems. Data represents unlinked passenger trips and is pulled from the National Transit Database (NTD). This file is updated on an annual basis. THEYEAR: The year for which the ridership figure was reported CTA_BUS: Total number of unlinked passenger trips (in millions) on CTA's bus routes CTA_RAIL: Total number of unlinked passenger trips (in millions) on CTA's rail lines CTA_TOTAL: Total number of unlinked passenger trips (in millions) on CTA's transit system (combination of bus and rail data) METRA: Total number of unlinked passenger trips (in millions) on Metra's rail lines PACE: Total number of unlinked passenger trips (in millions) on Pace's suburban system, which includes bus, Dial-a-Ride, and vanpool modes ADA Paratransit: Total number of unlinked paratransit passenger trips (in millions) Some notes regarding the data. CTA: Starting in 1997, CTA rail ridership includes rail-to-rail transfers, making CTA rail ridership figures before and after 1997 not comparable. Metra: The agency has purchase of service agreements with two railroads, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacific (UP), which assumed service from the Chicago & North Western (C&NW) in 1995. For consistency, BNSF and C&NW ridership data prior to 1995 has been included in Metra’s annual ridership data. ADA Paratransit: These services were operated by CTA prior to 2007; since 2007, Pace has operated regional paratransit service.