More on the XBL and profitability

Last week I lamented that the National Transit Database did not provide figures for mode share. However, I did find something interesting: farebox recovery data. For example, Rockland Coaches, a.k.a. Red and Tan Lines, a division of Coachusa, made an $8.4 million profit in 2007 (PDF), just over two dollars per trip. Evidence that quickways help bus operators to make a profit.

I've now crunched the data (all from 2007, updated link) and come up with some overall numbers to substantiate my impression:

Area	Average farebox recovery ratio, weighted by unlinked trips
Nationwide transit	40.5 %
Nationwide bus	27.5 %
Buses in the tri-state area (NY-NJ-CT)	38.1 %
Agencies that use the XBL	95.9 %

Note that these agencies that use the XBL do not run all their routes through there.

Here are the twenty bus agencies with the highest farebox recovery ratios:

State	Name	Fare Revenues per Total Operating Expense (Recovery Ratio)
PA	Trans-Bridge Lines, Inc.	105.8
NJ	New Jersey Transit Corporation-45 (NJTC-45)	104.4
NJ	Trans-Hudson Express	102.8
NJ	Rockland Coaches, Inc.	102.2
NJ	Community Transit, Inc. (Community Transit)	101.3
NJ	Olympia Trails Bus Company, Inc. (Coach USA)	100.9
NJ	Orange-Newark-Elizabeth, Inc. (Coach USA)	100.8
RI	Bonanza (BZ)	96.8
NJ	Academy Lines, Inc.	93.9
NJ	Hudson Transit Lines, Inc. (Short Line)	88.1
NJ	Suburban Transit Corporation (Coach USA)	86.5
NY	Adirondack Transit Lines, Inc, (Adirondack Trailways)	82.6
NJ	DeCamp Bus Lines	79.3
NY	Monroe Bus Corporation	78.2
NJ	Lakeland Bus Lines, Inc.	74.6
NY	Monsey New Square Trails Corporation	71.8
VA	Blacksburg Transit (BT)	61.8
NC	Chapel Hill Transit (CHT)	61.7
FL	Gainesville Regional Transit System (RTS)	55.8
CA	University of California, Davis (Unitrans)	53.6

The last four obviously do not use the XBL. Of the others, I'm not familiar with Orange-Newark-Elizabeth; Wikipedia says they just run three local routes in those three cities, but given the rest of the pattern I'd be surprised if they didn't have some XBL revenue. There is a clear pattern: all the bus agencies in the NTD that make more than 70% farebox recovery use the XBL, and all the ones that make less than 63% do not.

I would like to point out what these agencies for-profit corporations (and one division of NJ transit) don't have: specialized vehicles, passenger information, offboard fare collection, subway-like station spacing, traffic signal priority and other Intelligent Transportation System applications. They have one single "iconic station" (I suppose you can call the Port Authority that), and one Exclusive Bus Lane. I'm not saying none of those other things matter, but let's have some perspective.

Other than that, all I can say is that with the amount that's been written about farebox recovery, I'm baffled as to why no one seems to have noticed this before.