Bay Metro

Bus at Bay Metro

Bay Metro carried 311,133 bus boardings in FY2025 at $18.27 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Bus Bay City, MI
FY2025 boardings
311.1K
+11.5% vs FY2024
Cost per ride
$18.27
-11.3% nationwide $8.57
Subsidy per ride
$17.84
-11.4% operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
2.4%
+0.9% nationwide 10.4%
Passenger miles
1.97M
average trip 6.34 miles
Operating cost
$5.69M
Vehicles in service
30
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
8.97
34.7K 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 311,133 1,971,961 34,692 $5,685,616 $18.27 $17.84 2.4% 30

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 Bay Metro reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2025 311,133 1,971,961 725,657 34,692 $5,685,616 $136,455 $18.27 $17.84 2.4%
2024 278,998 1,915,962 734,992 34,291 $5,750,370 $136,735 $20.61 $20.12 2.4%
2023 238,313 1,642,849 726,342 34,207 $5,634,448 $114,986 $23.64 $23.16 2%
2022 184,853 1,274,201 708,180 33,236 $4,923,817 $87,493 $26.64 $26.16 1.8%
2021 45,067 290,580 164,528 9,445 $1,703,096 $1,252 $37.79 $37.76 0.1%
2020 204,288 1,342,641 398,200 19,016 $3,571,161 $94,402 $17.48 $17.02 2.6%
2019 442,368 2,960,513 822,359 40,912 $5,071,432 $411,760 $11.46 $10.53 8.1%
2018 478,721 3,248,592 1,005,176 48,026 $5,609,525 $630,029 $11.72 $10.40 11.2%
2017 487,472 3,382,003 1,008,331 48,832 $5,573,295 $638,933 $11.43 $10.12 11.5%
2016 491,823 3,701,234 1,020,878 49,493 $5,311,676 $755,664 $10.80 $9.26 14.2%
2015 501,120 3,604,986 994,642 48,797 $5,073,567 $616,081 $10.12 $8.90 12.1%