RTA Rapid Transit
Overview
Owner	Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Locale	Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Transit type	Rapid transit Semi-metro
Number of lines	1 rapid transit: Red 3 light rail: Blue, Green, Waterfront[1]
Number of stations	18 rapid transit 34 light rail[1]
Daily ridership	9,200 (rapid transit, weekdays, Q3 2024) 1,700 (light rail, weekdays, Q3 2024)[2]
Annual ridership	3,469,100 (rapid transit, 2023) 661,500 (light rail, 2023)[3]
Operation
Began operation	October 25, 1859; 165 years ago (1859-10-25) (first streetcar line); December 17, 1913; 111 years ago (1913-12-17) (current lines); March 15, 1955; 69 years ago (1955-03-15) (rapid transit); October 11, 1980; 44 years ago (1980-10-11) (semi-metro)
Ended operation	October 30, 1981; 43 years ago (1981-10-30) (last streetcar use)
Number of vehicles	40 rapid transit cars 34 light rail cars[1]
Technical
System length	19 mi (31 km) rapid transit 18 mi (29 km) light rail[1]
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
System map View static map Legend  Red  Airport Brookpark Puritas West Park South Harbor  Waterfront  Triskett E. 9th–North Coast W. 117th–Madison Amtrak West Blvd.–Cudell West 3rd–Stadium West 65th–Lorain Flats East Bank W. 25th–Ohio City Settlers Landing  Blue   Green   Waterfront  Tower City Tri-C–Campus District East 55th East 79th East 79th Buckeye–Woodhill East 105th–Quincy E. 166th–St. Luke's Cedar–University Shaker Square Little Italy– University Circle Superior Louis Stokes– Windermere  Red  Drexmore Coventry South Woodland Southington Southington South Park Onaway Lee–Shaker Ashby Attleboro Lee–Van Aken Eaton Avalon Courtland Kenmore Warrensville–Shaker Lynnfield Belvoir Farnsleigh West Green  Blue  Warrensville- Van Aken Green Road  Green  View diagram

RTA Rapid Transit (generally known as The Rapid) is a rapid transit and semi-metro^[4] system owned and operated by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA).

The system serves Cleveland and surrounding areas in Cuyahoga County. The system currently consists of four total service lines: one rapid transit rail line and three light rail lines.

The four rail lines join at Tower City Center in downtown Cleveland, on the platform level of the former Cleveland Union Terminal.

Three rail lines share their tracks at Tri-C–Campus District and East 55th stations. This sharing of one route by light and heavy rail trains is quite unusual. The shared stations have connected platforms of two heights to accommodate the two kinds of trains. And the two types of trains both use the same maintenance facility since they both use the same track gauge and same source of power (overhead catenary).

The Red Line, a heavy-rail route, runs in both directions on fully grade-separated rights-of-way built from 1955 to 1968. It serves Cleveland's southwest suburbs, with its southwestern terminus at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Heading northeast, the Red Line serves University Circle before heading to its northeastern terminus at the Louis Stokes Station at Windermere in East Cleveland.

The Blue and Green light-rail lines (alternatively known as the RTA Shaker Rapid) were built from 1913 to 1936 as grade-separated lines closer to downtown and surface lines along street medians in the streetcar suburb of Shaker Heights.

The two lines part ways at Shaker Square, a historic mixed-use community in Cleveland proper, just west of the Shaker Heights border. The Blue Line veers southeast along Van Aken Boulevard until reaching its terminus near the intersection of Warrensville Center Road and Chagrin Boulevard (U.S. Route 422 and State Route 8). The Green line continues due east along Shaker Boulevard (State Route 87) until reaching its terminus at the intersection of Green Road.

The Waterfront Line, opened in 1996, extends the Blue and Green Lines from Tower City north through The Flats. It then travels northeast along the shoreline of Lake Erie, servicing the local Amtrak station and terminates at the Lakefront Municipal lot. The Waterfront light rail line provides access from Tower City Center to the Flats, Cleveland Browns Stadium, the Great Lakes Science Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Burke Lakefront Airport.

The RTA Rapid Transit system consists of a total of 47 stations.^[5] The stations are fully or partially within the city limits of Cleveland, Shaker Heights, East Cleveland, and Brook Park.

Note: Euclid–East 120th Street station closed in 2015 and was replaced by Little Italy–University Circle station.

• List of metro systems
• List of light rail transit systems
• List of rail transit systems in the United States
• List of Ohio train stations

• Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority – Maps and Schedules
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. OH-4, "Shaker Heights Rapid Transit Line, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH", 18 photos, 15 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
• Jon Bell – Cleveland, Ohio: Transit Links
• Cleveland, Ohio – Rapid Transit (RTA)
• nycsubway.org – Cleveland, Ohio
• RTA Rapid Transit Locations
• Northern Ohio Railway Museum