ART (Asheville Rides Transit)

Bus at ART (Asheville Rides Transit)

ART (Asheville Rides Transit) carried 1,416,025 bus boardings in FY2025 at $8.14 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Bus Asheville, NC
FY2025 boardings
1.42M
-11.9% vs FY2024
Cost per ride
$8.14
+2.8% nationwide $8.57
Subsidy per ride
$7.86
+4.1% operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
3.5%
-26.6% nationwide 10.4%
Passenger miles
5.37M
average trip 3.79 miles
Operating cost
$11.5M
Vehicles in service
19
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
14.98
94.5K hours operated

Ridership

Monthly data through August 2026.

This year against the last five

Same months on one axis, so seasonality does not read as a trend

Annual boardings

Ten-year series

Cost

This service against every bus operator in the country.

Cost per ride

This agency against the national figure for the same mode

Fare recovery

Share of operating cost covered by fares

Directly operated and purchased service, FY2025

NTD reports these separately. An agency that contracts a service out reports the contract price, which bundles costs a directly operating agency reports line by line.

Service Boardings Passenger miles Revenue hours Operating cost Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery Vehicles
Directly operated — — — — — — — —
Purchased transportation 1,416,025 5,373,058 94,544 $11,528,436 $8.14 $7.86 3.5% 19

Safety and reliability

For this service alone.

Events by year

Complete calendar years only

Miles between failures

Revenue miles divided by mechanical failures. Higher is better.

Full series

Every year ART (Asheville Rides Transit) reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2025 1,416,025 5,373,058 1,181,781 94,544 $11,528,436 $399,910 $8.14 $7.86 3.5%
2024 1,607,423 5,895,547 1,278,231 103,285 $12,732,832 $601,698 $7.92 $7.55 4.7%
2023 1,377,810 5,005,600 1,317,518 100,891 $11,814,034 $591,426 $8.57 $8.15 5%
2022 1,485,058 4,039,338 1,287,477 100,062 $10,550,615 $479,222 $7.10 $6.78 4.5%
2021 1,432,189 3,665,751 1,313,303 102,792 $9,938,870 $49,570 $6.94 $6.91 0.5%
2020 1,408,523 4,585,113 1,254,012 91,605 $7,783,359 $392,549 $5.53 $5.25 5%
2019 1,978,720 6,051,328 1,090,122 81,023 $7,807,142 $509,193 $3.95 $3.69 6.5%
2018 1,964,651 5,317,151 1,036,286 76,768 $5,420,991 $518,799 $2.76 $2.50 9.6%
2017 2,125,214 6,940,800 1,017,879 68,107 $5,148,844 $651,489 $2.42 $2.12 12.7%
2016 2,135,879 7,246,896 935,064 68,588 $5,361,579 $790,462 $2.51 $2.14 14.7%
2015 1,458,306 4,681,162 949,550 64,345 $5,208,630 $670,025 $3.57 $3.11 12.9%