Cheapest Commuter Rail Systems by Cost per Rider
US commuter rail operators ranked by operating cost per passenger trip, cheapest first. · 2024 report year
This table ranks 24 US commuter rail operators by cost per rider for 2024, limited to systems carrying at least 500,000 trips a year so that a very small operator cannot top the list on a handful of rides. 27 agencies reported commuter rail service in total, carrying 364 million trips between them.
Utah Transit Authority runs the cheapest commuter rail service on this list at $12.98 per rider, against $82.35 at Rio Metro Regional Transit District — a spread of 6.3×. The national median for commuter rail is $44.41 per rider.
A high cost per rider is not by itself a sign of waste: a system covering long distances, running at low density, or carrying fewer riders than the service it operates was built for will show a higher figure than a dense, heavily used one. The number is a starting point for a question, not the answer to it.
| # | Agency | Location | Cost per rider | Annual trips | Operating expense | Farebox |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Utah Transit Authority | Salt Lake City, UT | $12.98 | 4,128,460 | $53.6 million | 9% |
| 2 | Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority | Philadelphia, PA | $14.74 | 22,480,414 | $331 million | 26% |
| 3 | Denver Regional Transportation District | Denver, CO | $16.43 | 8,331,378 | $137 million | 13% |
| 4 | Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority | Boston, MA | $19.51 | 29,186,010 | $570 million | 23% |
| 5 | MTA Long Island Rail Road | New York, NY | $22.76 | 97,220,517 | $2.21 billion | 29% |
| 6 | New Jersey Transit Corporation | Newark, NJ | $22.80 | 60,447,079 | $1.38 billion | 30% |
| 7 | Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company, dba: MTA Metro-North Railroad | New York, NY | $23.02 | 74,064,075 | $1.71 billion | 37% |
| 8 | Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board | San Carlos, CA | $26.03 | 7,405,005 | $193 million | 24% |
| 9 | Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation | Chicago, IL | $28.21 | 35,051,943 | $989 million | 17% |
| 10 | South Florida Regional Transportation Authority | Pompano Beach, FL | $29.36 | 4,299,794 | $126 million | 12% |
| 11 | Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District | Chesterton, IN | $36.69 | 1,771,513 | $65.0 million | 18% |
| 12 | Dallas Area Rapid Transit | Dallas, TX | $37.43 | 1,270,112 | $47.5 million | 8% |
| 13 | Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District | Petaluma, CA | $41.85 | 850,270 | $35.6 million | 6% |
| 14 | North County Transit District | Oceanside, CA | $44.41 | 852,993 | $37.9 million | 9% |
| 15 | Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority | Portland, ME | $44.80 | 598,426 | $26.8 million | 49% |
| 16 | Pennsylvania Department of Transportation | Harrisburg, PA | $45.94 | 634,804 | $29.2 million | 88% |
| 17 | Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority | Seattle, WA | $47.81 | 1,916,429 | $91.6 million | 7% |
| 18 | Fort Worth Transportation Authority | Fort Worth, TX | $49.08 | 779,769 | $38.3 million | 4% |
| 19 | Maryland Transit Administration | Baltimore, MD | $49.31 | 3,836,552 | $189 million | 12% |
| 20 | Altamont Corridor Express | Stockton, CA | $56.81 | 681,351 | $38.7 million | 14% |
| 21 | Virginia Railway Express | Woodbridge, VA | $66.71 | 1,589,693 | $106 million | 15% |
| 22 | Central Florida Commuter Rail | Tallahassee, FL | $67.51 | 1,136,319 | $76.7 million | 3% |
| 23 | Southern California Regional Rail Authority | Los Angeles, CA | $71.56 | 4,321,271 | $309 million | 12% |
| 24 | Rio Metro Regional Transit District | Albuquerque, NM | $82.35 | 593,723 | $48.9 million | 2% |
Other rankings
- Cheapest Heavy Rail Systems by Cost per Rider 16 systems
- Most Expensive Heavy Rail Systems by Cost per Rider 16 systems
- Highest-Ridership Heavy Rail Systems 16 systems
- Best Farebox Recovery Among Heavy Rail Systems 16 systems
- Cheapest Light Rail Systems by Cost per Rider 22 systems
- Most Expensive Light Rail Systems by Cost per Rider 22 systems
- Highest-Ridership Light Rail Systems 22 systems
- Most Expensive Commuter Rail Systems by Cost per Rider 24 systems
- Highest-Ridership Commuter Rail Systems 27 systems
- Best Farebox Recovery Among Commuter Rail Systems 24 systems
- Cheapest Bus Systems by Cost per Rider 40 systems
- Most Expensive Bus Systems by Cost per Rider 40 systems
- Highest-Ridership Bus Agencies 40 systems
- Best Farebox Recovery Among Large Bus Systems 40 systems
- Highest-Ridership Bus Rapid Transit Systems 20 systems
- Highest-Ridership Streetcar Systems 25 systems
- Highest-Ridership Ferry Systems 39 systems
- Most Expensive Demand-Response (Paratransit) Services by Cost per Rider 40 systems
- Highest-Ridership Demand-Response (Paratransit) Services 40 systems
Ask a different question
This is one cut of the data. Ask NTD answers the rest in plain English — any mode, any metric, any year.
Open this in Ask NTD →Source & method. Figures are from the Federal Transit Administration's National Transit Database (NTD) annual reporting for 2024, the most recent published report year. Cost per rider is operating expense divided by unlinked passenger trips. Farebox recovery is fare revenue divided by operating expense. Ten-year trends are adjusted for inflation to 2024 dollars; single-year figures are as reported. Agencies self-report to the NTD, and reporting practice varies, so figures are best read as comparable in magnitude rather than to the cent. This table is limited to systems carrying at least 500,000 trips a year.