Transit Operating Cost Calculator

Utilizing a transit agency’s past operations and financial data, the Transit Operating Cost Calculator determines a per unit cost to add or retract one unit of transit service. This tool can use one-variable or multiple variables to determine how adding or eliminating a bus route will impact the agency’s bottom-line. The calculator is able to determine the impacts to service expansion or reduction to individual funding partners.

Example Application: The Blacksburg Transit Cost Model used three cost drivers: revenue hours, revenue miles, and peak vehicles to track unit costs over time, to estimate the incremental costs of new services, and to determine how to equitably split these costs across three regional funding partners.