Most Expensive Demand-Response (Paratransit) Services by Cost per Rider
Large US demand-response and paratransit operations ranked by operating cost per passenger trip. · 2024 report year
This table ranks 40 US demand response 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. 1,920 agencies reported demand response service in total, carrying 140 million trips between them.
KI BOIS Community Action Foundation, Inc. runs the cheapest demand response service on this list at $18.56 per rider, against $161.25 at Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority — a spread of 8.7×. The national median for demand response is $38.06 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 | Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority | Boston, MA | $161.25 | 960,871 | $155 million | 2% |
| 2 | Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority | Washington, DC | $134.99 | 1,396,962 | $189 million | 2% |
| 3 | New Jersey Transit Corporation | Newark, NJ | $114.01 | 1,390,414 | $159 million | 2% |
| 4 | Denver Regional Transportation District | Denver, CO | $103.54 | 757,130 | $78.4 million | 3% |
| 5 | Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority | Atlanta, GA | $98.26 | 759,097 | $74.6 million | 1% |
| 6 | MTA New York City Transit | Brooklyn, NY | $96.01 | 2,828,231 | $272 million | 2% |
| 7 | Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon | Portland, OR | $93.79 | 639,576 | $60.0 million | 15% |
| 8 | King County | Seattle, WA | $87.96 | 1,156,915 | $102 million | 1% |
| 9 | Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority | Austin, TX | $73.70 | 1,089,647 | $80.3 million | 1% |
| 10 | Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority | Philadelphia, PA | $71.08 | 907,546 | $64.5 million | 9% |
| 11 | Sacramento Regional Transit District | Sacramento, CA | $70.94 | 551,744 | $39.1 million | 4% |
| 12 | Orange County Transportation Authority | Orange, CA | $69.23 | 1,192,236 | $82.5 million | 8% |
| 13 | The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority | Cleveland, OH | $68.93 | 661,142 | $45.6 million | 3% |
| 14 | Pace, the Suburban Bus Division of the Regional Transportation Authority | Arlington Heights, IL | $68.40 | 3,215,055 | $220 million | 4% |
| 15 | Delaware Transit Corporation | Dover, DE | $66.71 | 885,589 | $59.1 million | 7% |
| 16 | Maryland Transit Administration | Baltimore, MD | $64.41 | 2,939,453 | $189 million | 0% |
| 17 | Suffolk County | Yaphank, NY | $63.08 | 667,641 | $42.1 million | 6% |
| 18 | Mass Transportation Authority | Flint, MI | $61.39 | 509,475 | $31.3 million | 2% |
| 19 | Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority | Orlando, FL | $60.25 | 721,216 | $43.5 million | 7% |
| 20 | Board of County Commissioners, Palm Beach County | West Palm Beach, FL | $59.60 | 1,024,336 | $61.0 million | 5% |
| 21 | Access Services | El Monte, CA | $59.47 | 4,167,464 | $248 million | 4% |
| 22 | Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada | Las Vegas, NV | $58.45 | 1,511,043 | $88.3 million | 4% |
| 23 | City and County of Honolulu | Honolulu, HI | $58.19 | 1,198,262 | $69.7 million | 2% |
| 24 | Metropolitan Council | Saint Paul, MN | $54.03 | 2,220,041 | $120 million | 5% |
| 25 | Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas | Houston, TX | $53.48 | 2,054,787 | $110 million | 2% |
| 26 | Bi-State Development Agency of the Missouri-Illinois Metropolitan District | Saint Louis, MO | $50.18 | 610,502 | $30.6 million | 3% |
| 27 | Utah Transit Authority | Salt Lake City, UT | $48.53 | 935,854 | $45.4 million | 2% |
| 28 | Broward County Board of County Commissioners | Fort Lauderdale, FL | $45.80 | 1,048,353 | $48.0 million | 1% |
| 29 | City of Tucson | Tucson, AZ | $44.17 | 506,164 | $22.4 million | 1% |
| 30 | Kansas City Area Transportation Authority | Kansas City, MO | $42.85 | 609,354 | $26.1 million | 4% |
| 31 | County of Miami-Dade | Miami, FL | $41.66 | 1,554,913 | $64.8 million | 7% |
| 32 | Pittsburgh Regional Transit | Pittsburgh, PA | $40.88 | 945,351 | $38.7 million | 25% |
| 33 | Dallas Area Rapid Transit | Dallas, TX | $40.66 | 1,727,107 | $70.2 million | 6% |
| 34 | OATS, Inc. | Columbia, MO | $39.38 | 905,120 | $35.6 million | 11% |
| 35 | Susquehanna Regional Transportation Authority | Harrisburg, PA | $39.18 | 793,979 | $31.1 million | 56% |
| 36 | Montachusett Regional Transit Authority | Fitchburg, MA | $38.44 | 591,768 | $22.7 million | 11% |
| 37 | VIA Metropolitan Transit | San Antonio, TX | $37.73 | 1,441,732 | $54.4 million | 3% |
| 38 | Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority | Los Angeles, CA | $32.40 | 762,757 | $24.7 million | 2% |
| 39 | Sarasota County | Sarasota, FL | $25.38 | 542,403 | $13.8 million | 8% |
| 40 | KI BOIS Community Action Foundation, Inc. | Stigler, OK | $18.56 | 623,101 | $11.6 million | 5% |
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
- Cheapest Commuter Rail Systems by Cost per Rider 24 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
- 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.