Operating Costs and Performance Measures
Operating Expenses
Concepts
Operating expenses are those expenses incurred by transit agencies that are associated with operating mass transportation services (vehicle operations, maintenance and administration). Reconciling items are expenses that vary as transit agencies have different accounting practices due to local ordinances on accounting treatments. Regarding performance measures, the NTST excludes reconciling items such as depreciation, interest expenses, leases and rentals.
Comments
Operating expenses increased nearly 38 percent over the last 10 years. The modes showing the highest increases were light rail, demand response and vanpool. These increases reflect the addition of new systems during the same period.
Total
Operating Expense — 1997 - 2006
Total Operating Expense by Mode — 2006
Operating Expense by Function and Object Class
Concepts
Operating expense data is reported by mode, function and object class. Function refers to the activity performed or cost center of a transit agency. Object class refers to groupings of expenses on the basis of goods or services purchased.
The four functions are:
1. Vehicle operations
2. Vehicle maintenance
3. Non-vehicle maintenance
4. General administration.
Comments
The transit industry is labor intensive. Salaries and wages and fringe benefits account for nearly 79.2 percent of the total directly operated expenditures. Fifty-three percent of total expenditures are devoted to vehicle operations.
Operating Expense — 2006
|
Operating Expense by Function |
Operating Expense by Object Class — Directly Operated Service |
Cost Effectiveness (Operating Expense per Unlinked Passenger Trip)
Concepts
Cost effectiveness is the relationship between service inputs and service consumption.
Service input is the quantity of resources expended to produce transit service, expressed in either monetary or non-monetary terms. Examples include operating cost (dollars expended for operations, maintenance and administration), employee hours (total operating, maintenance or administration), capital investment and energy (fuel cost or volume).
Service consumption is the amount of service used by the public expressed in either monetary or non-monetary terms. Examples include unlinked passenger trips, passenger miles and operating revenue.
Comments
Overall, operating expense per unlinked passenger trip increased 17 percent over the last 10 years. With the exception of heavy rail, all modes had increases greater than inflation.
Operating Expense per Unlinked Passenger Trip 1997 - 2006
Operating Expense per Unlinked Passenger Trip 1997 – 2006
(Constant 2000 Dollars)
|
Year |
Operating Expense (Millions) |
Unlinked Passenger Trips (Millions) |
Operating Expense per Unlinked Passenger Trip |
|
1997 |
$17,840 |
7,954 |
$2.24 |
|
1998 |
$18,307 |
8,115 |
$2.26 |
|
1999 |
$19,267 |
8,523 |
$2.26 |
|
2000 |
$20,009 |
8,720 |
$2.29 |
|
2001 |
$21,037 |
9,008 |
$2.34 |
|
2002 |
$21,971 |
9,017 |
$2.44 |
|
2003 |
$22,597 |
8,876 |
$2.55 |
|
2004 |
$23,088 |
8,937 |
$2.58 |
|
2005 |
$23,878 |
9,175 |
$2.60 |
|
2006 |
$24,561 |
9,379 |
$2.62 |
|
% Change |
38% |
18% |
17% |
Operating Expense per Unlinked Passenger Trip for Bus and Rail Modes 1997 - 2006
Cost Efficiency (Operating Expense per Vehicle Revenue Hour)
Concepts
Cost efficiency is the relationship between service inputs and service outputs.
Service output is the quantity of service produced by a transit operator, expressed in non-monetary terms. Examples include vehicle hours (total and revenue), vehicle miles (total and revenue), capacity miles (total vehicle capacity times revenue mileage), service reliability (miles between system failures) and safety (number of accidents).
Comments
Overall, operating expense per vehicle revenue hour increased by approximately 6 percent over the last 10 years.
Total Operating Expense per Vehicle Revenue Hour 1997 - 2006
Operating Expense per Vehicle Revenue Hour 1997 - 2006
|
Year |
Operating Expense (Millions) |
Vehicle Revenue Hours (Millions) |
Operating Expense per
Vehicle Revenue Hour |
|
1997 |
$16,962 |
190 |
$93.9 |
|
1998 |
$17,580 |
198 |
$92.5 |
|
1999 |
$18,781 |
207 |
$93.1 |
|
2000 |
$20,009 |
216 |
$92.8 |
|
2001 |
$21,529 |
223 |
$94.4 |
|
2002 |
$22,905 |
230 |
$95.4 |
|
2003 |
$24,185 |
234 |
$96.4 |
|
2004 |
$25,427 |
240 |
$96.2 |
|
2005 |
$27,238 |
241 |
$99.1 |
|
2006 |
$29,025 |
247 |
$99.6 |
|
% Change |
71.1% |
29.9% |
6.0% |
Service Effectiveness
Concepts
Service effectiveness is the relationship between service outputs and service consumption.
Comments
Unlinked passenger trips per vehicle revenue hour decreased by 9 percent from 1997 to 2006. This was due to increased service supplied for bus mode in low density urbanized areas and increased demand for low capacity modes such as demand response and vanpool.
Unlinked Passenger Trip per Vehicle Revenue Hour 1997 - 2006
Unlinked Passenger Trip per Vehicle Revenue Hour 1997 - 2006
|
Year |
Unlinked Passenger Trips (Millions) |
Vehicle Revenue Hours (Millions) |
Unlinked Passenger Trips per Vehicle Revenue Hour |
|
1997 |
7954 |
190 |
41.9 |
|
1998 |
8115 |
198 |
41.0 |
|
1999 |
8523 |
207 |
41.2 |
|
2000 |
8720 |
216 |
40.4 |
|
2001 |
9008 |
223 |
40.4 |
|
2002 |
9017 |
230 |
39.2 |
|
2003 |
8876 |
234 |
37.9 |
|
2004 |
8937 |
240 |
37.3 |
|
2005 |
9175 |
241 |
38.1 |
|
2006 |
9379 |
247 |
38.0 |
|
% Change |
17.9% |
29.9% |
-9.2% |
Unlinked Passenger Trip per Vehicle Revenue Hour by Mode 1997 - 2006
Quality of Transit Service
Fatalities
Concepts
A fatality is defined as a transit-caused death confirmed within 30 days following a transit related incident.
Individuals Involved
Fatalities are categorized according to six categories of individuals:
1. Passengers: A person who is on board a transit vehicle or who is boarding / alighting, including those using ramps and lifts.
2. Revenue facility occupants: A person who is inside the public passenger area of transit revenue facility. Employees, other workers or trespassers are not transit facility occupants.
3. Employees: An individual who is compensated by the transit agency.
4. Other workers: A person who is not employed by the transit agency or a purchased transportation (PT) provider contracted to provide specific services to the transit agency.
5. Trespassers: A person in an area of the transit property that is prohibited for public use.
6. Others: A person who is not a passenger, transit facility occupant, employee, other worker or trespasser.
Total Fatalities (*) 1997 - 2006
(*) Data excludes Commuter Rail and includes suicides. Data is reported by calendar year.
Total Fatalities 1997 - 2006
|
Year |
Total Fatalities |
Year |
Total Fatalities |
|
1997 |
208 |
2002 |
179 |
|
1998 |
213 |
2003 |
194 |
|
1999 |
221 |
2004 |
177 |
|
2000 |
229 |
2005 |
149 |
|
2001 |
191 |
2006 |
162 |
Fatalities per 100 Million Passenger Miles — 2006
Distribution of Fatalities
Comments
Most victims in transit-related accidents are non-passengers. Passenger fatalities account for 21 percent of all fatalities (excluding suicides).
| Distribution of Fatalities — 2006 | Number of Fatalities — 2006 | ||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||
| (*) Data does not include Commuter Rail | |||||||||||||||
Reliability
Miles between Major Mechanical System Failures — Bus
Concepts
These are failures of a mechanical element of the revenue vehicle that prevents the vehicle from completing a scheduled revenue trip or from starting the next scheduled revenue trip because actual movement is limited or because of safety concerns. Examples of major bus failures include breakdowns of air equipment, brakes, doors, engine cooling system, steering and front axle, rear axle and suspension and torque converters.
A number of factors affect the number of major mechanical system failures incurred by a transit agency including local operating conditions, types of vehicles operated, and effectiveness of the maintenance program. However, it is expected that the same types of major mechanical failures will be reported by different agencies. The differences among agencies may be in the numbers reported, not the types of major mechanical failures.
Vehicle miles are the total miles that a vehicle travels while in service (actual vehicle revenue miles and deadhead miles). See the Transit in the United States section for definitions of vehicle revenue miles and deadhead miles.
Comments
Due to changes in the definition of major and minor system failures over the years, only the years 2001 through 2006 are shown in the NTST.
Miles between Major Mechanical System Failures — Bus 2001 - 2006
Miles between Major Mechanical System Failures (Directly Operated Service) 2001 - 2006
|
Year |
Major System Failures |
Vehicle Miles (Millions) |
Vehicle Miles Between Major System Failures |
|
2001 |
296,480 |
1,913 |
6,454 |
|
2002 |
261,342 |
1,912 |
7,316 |
|
2003 |
248,968 |
1,862 |
7,480 |
|
2004 |
247,676 |
1,849 |
7,467 |
|
2005 |
261,793 |
1,839 |
7,026 |
2006 |
266,745 |
1,837 |
6,886 |
|
% Change |
-10.0% |
-4.0% |
6.8% |