Mountain Line

Bus at Mountain Line

Mountain Line carried 1,221,669 bus boardings in FY2024 at $8.61 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Bus Missoula, MT
FY2024 boardings
1.22M
+11.8% vs FY2023
Cost per ride
$8.61
-2.4% nationwide $8.24
Subsidy per ride
operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
nationwide 11%
Passenger miles
5.61M
average trip 4.59 miles
Operating cost
$10.5M
Vehicles in service
22
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
16.36
74.7K hours operated

Ridership

Monthly data through July 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, FY2024

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 1,221,669 5,610,624 74,666 $10,514,003 $8.61 22

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 Mountain Line reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2024 1,221,669 5,610,624 917,635 74,666 $10,514,003 $8.61
2023 1,093,160 5,233,494 916,715 73,231 $9,638,762 $8.82
2022 828,919 2,355,103 633,207 45,519 $7,866,122 $9.49
2021 767,771 2,112,174 650,941 45,192 $6,246,927 $8.14
2020 1,225,842 3,003,696 640,169 45,646 $5,607,552 $4.57
2019 1,556,774 3,156,353 686,258 50,193 $5,543,103 $3.56
2018 1,570,567 3,268,988 700,424 50,288 $5,373,043 $3.42
2017 1,558,262 3,226,422 697,824 50,244 $4,998,917 $3.21
2016 1,546,273 3,355,413 719,573 56,952 $4,801,061 $3.10
2015 1,074,622 2,449,040 641,161 50,348 $4,432,814 $237,760 $4.12 $3.90 5.4%