Nice job cherry picking projects that support your view. Other cities, like Seattle, have shown dramatic growth in ridership. Sound Transit ridership increased 23% in 2016 and light rail boardings surpassed 2 million per month in June, up over 14 percent from May. The light rail system extended its operations from downtown to the University of Washington in April 2015. By April 2016, ridership had increased 79%. There are numerous cities with similar stories of ridership increases. You just seized on a couple that don't because you oppose rail.
There are other factors that affect transit ridership, including the service areas (do the trains/buses go where you want to travel), cost of gasoline (expense of alternatives), movement of work places from the urban core, etc. Populations, jobs and business locations are not static. Systems that adapt to changes will show better ridership.