During the recent World Cup soccer matches in Seattle Sound Transit touted a jump in light rail ridership. That increase, though temporary, was a bit of good news. However, major sporting events that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to downtown Seattle are rare. The more important test of the regional transit system is whether it regularly increases ridership and provides a positive return on the region’s massive investment.
Ridership can be measured in several ways. The most commonly reported measure is total boardings, which counts a passenger each time they board a bus or a rail car. As measured by total boardings, transit ridership in the Puget Sound region was 10.5% lower in 2025 than it was in 2015 (see table below). That decrease in ridership was despite transit funding which grew from about $2.6 billion in 2015 to over $4.7 billion in 2024.