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BTS Home > Publications > National Transportation Statistics > 2003

Transit Profile

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FINANCIAL

	1960	1970	1980	1990	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	(P) 2002
Passenger operating revenues¹, total ($ millions)	1,407	1,707	6,510	16,053	17,968	18,241	19,151	19,515	21,062	22,220	24,243	25,288	26,632
Operating revenues, total	1,407	1,707	2,805	6,786	9,027	9,613	10,345	10,854	11,654	11,930	12,963	12,471	13,251
Passenger fares, total	1,335	1,639	2,556	5,891	6,756	6,801	7,416	7,546	7,970	8,282	8,746	8,891	8,649
Motor bus	N	N	N	2,967	3,250	3,287	3,515	3,558	3,991	4,175	4,376	4,357	4,106
Heavy rail	N	N	N	1,741	1,976	2,018	2,322	2,351	2,297	2,323	2,483	2,533	2,493
Light rail	N	N	N	83	135	127	144	139	150	164	181	204	226
Trolley bus	N	N	N	46	55	54	55	57	55	60	60	60	59
Demand responsive	N	N	N	41	171	146	157	170	142	159	172	182	194
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	56	41	60	54	51	41	48	60	71	78
Commuter rail	N	N	N	952	1,083	1,078	1,146	1,178	1,255	1,309	1,375	1,439	1,447
Other^b	N	N	N	26	45	46	24	42	38	46	41	47	46
Other operating revenue	72	68	248	895	2,271	2,812	2,928	3,308	3,685	3,648	4,217	3,580	4,602
Operating assistance^c, total	N	N	3,705	9,267	8,941	8,628	8,807	8,661	9,408	10,290	11,280	12,817	13,382
State and local	N	N	2,611	8,297	8,026	7,811	8,210	8,014	8,656	9,418	10,286	11,688	12,063
Federal	N	N	1,093	970	916	817	596	647	751	872	994	1,130	1,319
Operating expenses², total ($ millions)	1,377	1,996	6,711	17,979	21,653	21,540	22,260	23,159	24,318	25,538	28,194	29,279	30,918
Operating expenses, total	N	N	6,247	15,742	17,920	17,849	18,341	18,936	19,739	20,512	22,646	23,517	24,834
Motor bus	N	N	N	8,903	10,144	10,321	10,575	10,944	11,429	11,714	12,966	13,335	14,066
Heavy rail	N	N	N	3,825	3,786	3,523	3,402	3,474	3,530	3,693	3,931	4,180	4,268
Light rail	N	N	N	237	413	376	442	473	500	546	606	682	778
Trolley bus	N	N	N	109	133	139	135	140	147	167	178	172	187
Demand responsive	N	N	N	518	943	1,000	1,187	1,285	1,405	1,419	1,805	1,754	1,949
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	171	200	210	183	221	214	238	268	324	354
Commuter rail	N	N	N	1,939	2,228	2,211	2,294	2,278	2,361	2,575	2,685	2,861	3,003
Other^b	N	N	N	41	73	67	124	122	154	160	206	208	229.4
Depreciation and amortization	N	N	278	1,593	2,769	2,601	2,885	3,106	3,435	3,692	4,076	4,233	4,470
Other reconciling items	N	N	186	644	964	1,091	1,034	1,117	1,145	1,333	1,472	1,529	1,614
Average passenger revenue per passenger-mile³, all modes ($)	N	N	N	0.14	0.17	0.17	0.18	0.18	0.18	0.18	0.18	0.18	0.18
Motor bus	N	N	N	0.14	0.17	0.17	0.18	0.18	0.20	0.20	0.21	0.20	0.19
Heavy rail	N	N	N	0.15	0.19	0.19	0.20	0.20	0.19	0.18	0.18	0.18	0.18
Light rail	N	N	N	0.15	0.18	0.15	0.15	0.13	0.13	0.14	0.13	0.14	0.16
Trolley bus	N	N	N	0.24	0.29	0.29	0.30	0.30	0.30	0.32	0.31	0.32	0.32
Demand responsive	N	N	N	0.10	0.30	0.29	0.24	0.23	0.19	0.20	0.21	0.21	0.23
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	0.20	0.14	0.23	0.21	0.17	0.14	0.16	0.18	0.22	0.23
Commuter rail	N	N	N	0.14	0.14	0.13	0.14	0.15	0.14	0.15	0.15	0.15	0.15
Other^b	N	N	N	0.21	0.23	0.17	0.07	0.11	0.09	0.10	0.09	0.09	0.09
Average passenger fare, per unlinked trip⁴, all modes ($)	0.14	0.22	0.30	0.67	0.85	0.87	0.93	0.89	0.91	0.90	0.93	0.92	0.89
Motor bus	N	N	N	0.52	0.62	0.66	0.70	0.70	0.74	0.74	0.77	0.74	0.70
Heavy rail	N	N	N	0.74	0.90	0.99	1.08	0.97	0.96	0.92	0.94	0.93	0.93
Light rail	N	N	N	0.47	0.66	0.50	0.55	0.53	0.54	0.56	0.57	0.61	0.67
Trolley bus	N	N	N	0.36	0.47	0.45	0.47	0.47	0.47	0.50	0.49	0.50	0.46
Demand responsive	N	N	N	0.60	2.04	2.26	2.21	1.83	1.49	1.59	1.64	1.73	1.87
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	1.11	0.87	1.31	1.12	0.99	0.80	0.91	1.13	1.32	1.36
Commuter rail	N	N	N	2.90	3.19	3.13	3.24	3.30	3.29	3.31	3.32	3.44	3.49
Other^b	N	N	N	0.90	1.28	1.57	1.33	0.66	1.02	0.76	0.66	0.75	0.77

INVENTORY

	1960	1970	1980	1990	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	(P) 2002
Number of systems^{d, 5}, total	1,286	1,096	1,055	5,078	5,973	5,973	5,973	5,975	6,000	6,000	6,000	6,000	6,000
Motor bus	1,236	1,075	1,022	2,685	2,250	2,250	2,250	2,250	2,262	2,262	2,262	2,264	2,264
Heavy rail	31	15	11	12	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14
Light rail	~	~	9	17	22	22	22	22	23	24	25	26	27
Trolley bus	19	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Demand responsive	N	N	N	3,193	5,214	5,214	5,214	5,214	5,254	5,252	5,252	5,251	5,251
Ferryboat^a	N	N	16	27	25	25	25	25	28	30	33	42	42
Commuter rail	N	N	18	14	16	16	16	18	18	20	19	21	20
Other^b	N	N	5	35	69	69	69	70	72	81	81	82	82
Number of vehicles⁶, total	65,292	61,298	75,388	92,961	115,943	115,874	122,362	126,360	123,855	128,516	131,493	134,271	135,282
Motor bus	49,600	49,700	59,411	58,714	68,123	67,107	71,678	72,770	72,142	74,228	75,013	76,075	76,190
Heavy rail	9,010	9,286	9,641	10,419	10,138	10,157	10,201	10,242	10,301	10,306	10,591	10,718	10,718
Light rail	2,856	1,262	1,013	913	1,054	999	1,140	1,229	1,220	1,297	1,577	1,366	1,445
Trolley bus	3,826	1,050	823	832	877	885	871	859	880	859	951	600	600
Demand responsive	N	N	N	16,471	28,729	29,352	30,804	32,509	29,646	31,884	33,080	34,661	34,699
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	108	110	110	109	134	113	112	119	125	125
Commuter rail	N	N	4,500	4,415	4,517	4,565	4,665	4,943	4,963	4,883	5,073	5,124	5,300
Other^b	N	N	N	1,089	2,395	2,699	2,894	3,674	4,590	4,947	5,089	5,602	6,205
Number of employees^{e, 7}, total	156,400	138,040	189,300	262,176	294,087	300,491	314,944	320,759	327,752	337,885	347,841	357,266	360,722
Motor bus	121,300	101,598	N	162,189	174,373	181,973	190,152	196,861	198,644	204,179	211,095	214,674	214,825
Heavy rail	35,100	36,442	N	46,102	51,062	45,644	45,793	45,935	45,163	46,311	47,087	47,865	48,464
Light rail	+	+	N	4,066	5,140	4,935	5,728	5,940	6,024	6,058	6,572	7,021	7,598
Trolley bus	+	+	N	1,925	1,848	1,871	2,084	2,037	2,053	2,140	2,223	2,008	2,027
Demand responsive	N	N	N	22,740	35,450	39,882	44,667	44,029	48,406	51,186	52,021	55,846	56,746
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	2,813	2,764	2,697	2,830	3,166	3,894	4,024	2,682	4,731	5,336
Commuter rail	N	N	N	21,443	22,596	22,320	22,604	21,651	22,488	22,896	23,518	23,851	24,391
Other^b	N	N	N	898	854	1,169	1,086	1,140	1,080	1,091	2,643	1,270	1,335

PERFORMANCE

	1960	1970	1980	1990	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	(P) 2002
Vehicle-miles⁸, total (millions)	2,143	1,883	2,287	3,242	3,468	3,550	3,650	3,746	3,794	3,972	4,081	4,196	4,277
Motor bus	1,576	1,409	1,677	2,130	2,162	2,184	2,221	2,245	2,175	2,276	2,315	2,377	2,411
Heavy rail	391	407	385	537	532	537	543	558	566	578	595	608	621
Light rail	75	34	18	24	34	35	38	41	44	49	53	54	61
Trolley bus	101	33	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	15	13	14
Demand responsive	N	N	N	306	464	507	548	585	671	718	759	789	803
Ferryboat^a	N	N	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Commuter rail	N	N	179	213	231	238	242	251	260	266	271	277	284
Other^b	N	N	13	16	30	33	43	50	63	69	71	75	80
Unlinked passenger trips⁹, total (millions)	N	7,332	8,567	8,799	7,949	7,763	7,948	8,374	8,750	9,168	9,363	9,653	9,623
Motor bus	N	5,034	5,837	5,677	4,871	4,848	4,887	5,013	5,399	5,648	5,678	5,849	5,868
Heavy rail	N	1,881	2,108	2,346	2,169	2,033	2,157	2,430	2,393	2,521	2,632	2,728	2,688
Light rail	N	124	133	175	284	251	261	262	276	292	320	336	337
Trolley bus	N	182	142	126	118	119	117	121	117	120	122	119	116
Demand responsive	N	N	N	68	88	88	93	99	95	100	105	105	103
Ferryboat^a	N	N	63	50	47	47	48	51	52	53	53	54	57
Commuter rail	N	N	280	328	339	344	352	357	381	396	413	419	414
Other^b	N	N	4	29	33	33	33	41	37	38	40	43	40
Passenger-miles¹⁰, total (millions)	N	N	39,854	41,143	39,585	39,808	41,378	42,339	44,128	45,857	47,666	49,070	48,324
Motor bus	N	N	21,790	20,981	18,832	18,818	19,096	19,604	20,360	21,205	21,241	22,022	21,841
Heavy rail	N	N	10,558	11,475	10,668	10,559	11,530	12,056	12,284	12,902	13,844	14,178	13,663
Light rail	N	N	381	571	833	860	957	1,035	1,128	1,206	1,356	1,437	1,432
Trolley bus	N	N	219	193	187	187	184	189	182	186	192	187	188
Demand responsive	N	N	N	431	577	607	656	754	735	813	839	855	853
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	286	260	260	256	294	294	310	330	325	333
Commuter rail	N	N	6,516	7,082	7,996	8,244	8,351	8,038	8,704	8,766	9,402	9,548	9,504
Other^b	N	N	390	124	232	273	348	369	441	469	462	518	510
Average trip length¹¹, all modes (miles)	N	N	N	N	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Motor bus	N	N	N	N	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Heavy rail	N	N	N	N	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Light rail	N	N	N	N	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Trolley bus	N	N	N	N	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Demand responsive	N	N	N	N	7	8	9	10	8	8	8	8	8
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	N	6	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	6
Commuter rail	N	N	N	N	24	24	24	23	23	22	23	23	23
Vanpool	N	N	N	N	32	35	34	33	36	34	35	33	37
Other^g	N	N	N	N	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Average vehicle speed¹², all modes (miles per hour)	N	N	N	N	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
Motor bus	N	N	N	N	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13
Heavy rail	N	N	N	N	21	21	21	21	21	21	21	20	20
Light rail	N	N	N	N	14	14	14	16	16	15	15	15	15
Trolley bus	N	N	N	N	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7
Demand responsive	N	N	N	N	14	15	15	15	17	15	15	15	15
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	N	8	6	7	7	8	8	8	8	8
Commuter rail	N	N	N	N	34	34	33	34	32	33	29	32	32
Vanpool	N	N	N	N	33	35	37	36	37	38	31	39	38
Other^f	N	N	N	N	6	6	7	7	7	7	8	8	8
Energy consumption, diesel¹³, total (million gallons)	208	271	431	651	678	678	693	717	740	763	786	745	725
Motor bus	N	N	N	563	565	564	578	598	607	618	635	587	559
Heavy rail	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Light rail	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Trolley bus	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Demand responsive	N	N	N	15	30	29	31	32	38	43	48	55	62
Ferryboat^a	N	N	N	20	21	22	22	24	25	29	32	30	31
Commuter rail	N	N	N	53	62	63	62	63	69	73	71	72	73
Other^b	N	N	N	<1	< 1	< 1	< 1	< 1	<1	<1	<1	<1	<1
Energy consumption, other¹⁴, total (million gallons)	192	69	11	34	65	71	76	83	90	93	103	112	138
Gasoline and other nondiesel fuels^g	192	68	11	33	60	61	61	59	53	49	48	46	57
Compressed natural gas	U	U	U	U	5	11	15	24	37	44	55	66	81
Energy consumption, electric power¹⁵, total (million kWh)	2,908	2,561	2,446	4,837	5,081	5,068	5,007	4,988	5,073	5,237	5,510	5,610	5,649
Motor bus	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Heavy rail	N	N	N	3,284	3,431	3,401	3,332	3,253	3,280	3,385	3,549	3,646	3,683
Light rail	N	N	N	239	282	288	321	361	381	416	463	487	510
Trolley bus	N	N	N	69	103	100	69	78	74	75	77	74	73
Demand responsive	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Ferryboat^a	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Commuter rail	N	N	N	1,226	1,244	1,253	1,255	1,270	1,299	1,322	1,370	1,354	1,334
Other^b	N	N	N	19	21	26	30	26	39	39	51	49	49

SAFETY

	1960	1970	1980	1990	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	(P) 2002
Fatalities, all modes¹⁶	N	N	N	339	320	274	264	275	286	299	295	267	260
Injured persons, all modes^{h, 17}	N	N	N	54,556	58,193	57,196	55,288	56,132	55,990	55,325	56,697	53,945	21,304
Incidents, all modes¹⁶	N	N	N	90,163	70,693	62,471	59,392	61,561	60,094	58,703	59,898	58,149	U
Major incidentsⁱ	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2,126

KEY: ~ = included in heavy rail figure; + = included in motor bus figure; kWh = kilowatt hours; N = data do not exist; NA = not applicable; P = preliminary; U = data are not available.

^a Excludes international, rural, rural interstate, island and urban park ferries.

^b Includes cable car, inclined plane, aerial tramway, monorail, vanpool, and automated guideway.

^c Beginning in 1992, local operating assistance and other revenue declined by about $500 million due to change in accounting procedures at the New York City Transit Authority. Beginning in 1992, total operating expense declined by about $400 million due to a change in accounting procedures at the New York City Transit Authority.

^d The total figure represents the number of transit agencies. It is not the sum of all modes since many agencies operate more than one mode.

^e Based on employee equivalents of 2,080 hours equals one employee; beginning in 1993, based on number of actual employees.

^f Includes cable car, inclined plane, aerial tramway, monorail, and automated guideway.

^g Liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, methanol, propane, and other nondiesel fuels, except compressed natural gas.

^h Beginning in 2002, the Federal Transit Administration changed the reporting threshold for injuries. Before 2002, essentially all injuries had to be reported to the National Transit Database. Beginning in 2002, only those injuries requiring immediate medical attention away from the scene of the incident are required to be reported.

ⁱ In 2002, the Federal Transit Administration defined major incidents as safety and/or security incidents resulting in: a fatality, two or more injuries transported for immediate medical treatment, property damage exceeding $25,000 (all property), main-line derailments, evacuations due to life safety, grade crossing collisions with injury or $7,500 damage, or rail transit vehicle collisions resulting in one or more injuries.

SOURCES

Unless otherwise noted, refer to chapter tables for sources.

¹ American Public Transit Association, Public Transportation Fact Book 2004, (Washington, DC: 2004), tables 64, 65, 103, and similar tables in earlier years.

² Ibid., tables 58, 61,103 and similar tables in earlier years.

³ Ibid., tables 8, 64, 65, 103, and similar tables in earlier years.

⁴ Ibid., table 63 and similar tables in earlier years.

⁵ Ibid., table 2 and similar tables for prior years.

⁶ Ibid., tables 24, 103, and similar tables in earlier years.

⁷ Ibid., tables 30, 103, and similar tables in earlier years.

⁸ Ibid., tables 18, 103, and similar tables in earlier years.

⁹ Ibid., tables 5, 103, and similar tables in earlier years.

¹⁰ Ibid., tables 8, 103, and similar tables in earlier years.

¹¹ Ibid., table 7 and similar tables in earlier years.

¹² Ibid., 20 and similar tables in earlier years.

¹³ Ibid., table 34 and similar tables in earlier years.

¹⁴ Ibid., table 35 and similar tables in earlier years.

¹⁵ Ibid., table 33 and similar tables in earlier years.

¹⁶ 1960-2001: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Transit Safety and Security Statistics and Analysis Annual Report (previously Safety Management Information Statistics - SAMIS), personal communication on July 28, 2003. 2002: Ibid., National Transit Database, Safety and Security Newsletter, Spring 2003, Volume 1, Issue 1, Internet site http://www.ntdprogram.com as of June 16, 2004.

¹⁷ 1960-2001: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Transit Safety and Security Statistics and Analysis Annual Report (previously Safety Management Information Statistics - SAMIS), personal communication on July 28, 2003. 2002: Ibid., National Transit Database, Safety and Security Newsletter, Fall 2003, Volume 1, Issue 2, Internet site http://www.ntdprogram.com as of June 16, 2004.