Understand the costs of existing and proposed service with Foursquare ITP’s Transit Resource Calculator. This tool calculates transit operating statistics (e.g., revenue hours, revenue miles, and peak vehicle requirement) and estimates the subsequent operating costs at the route level for new or modified routes in a transit service plan. The tool pulls from our GTFS to Existing Conditions tool for existing services to provide a baseline for route changes, incorporating both revenue service needs and layover time. The calculator is useful not only during major planning efforts but for smaller service changes over time.

Example Application: The BaltimoreLink service planning calculator was a dynamic tool that grew as project goals and targets evolved (i.e., shifting revenue hour targets, operator staffing changes, and other transit operating statistics goal shifts). The tool, which relies on several data sources to provide the highest level of service analysis outputs, has served as a reliable source of service level, scheduling, and cost estimations and it has allowed for an immediate and unprecedented understanding of the impacts of proposed operating changes to project targets for MTA.