San Francisco Bay Ferry

Ferryboat at San Francisco Bay Ferry

San Francisco Bay Ferry carried 2,836,526 ferryboat boardings in FY2025 at $23.16 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Ferryboat San Francisco, CA
FY2025 boardings
2.84M
+18.8% vs FY2024
Cost per ride
$23.16
-8.3% nationwide $17.28
Subsidy per ride
$17.84
-10.2% operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
23%
+7.7% nationwide 26.8%
Passenger miles
36.6M
average trip 12.91 miles
Operating cost
$65.7M
Vehicles in service
11
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
102.09
27.8K 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 ferryboat 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
Purchased transportation 2,836,526 36,614,425 27,785 $65,696,279 $23.16 $17.84 23% 11

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 San Francisco Bay Ferry reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2025 2,836,526 36,614,425 538,266 27,785 $65,696,279 $15,094,079 $23.16 $17.84 23%
2024 2,388,379 35,320,183 529,247 27,808 $60,324,098 $12,874,614 $25.26 $19.87 21.3%
2023 2,024,646 28,440,897 515,185 24,860 $55,300,017 $10,908,981 $27.31 $21.93 19.7%
2022 1,412,543 22,733,305 485,173 23,839 $46,480,710 $8,232,071 $32.91 $27.08 17.7%
2021 264,498 6,268,602 161,880 7,056 $31,032,509 $1,936,267 $117.33 $110.01 6.2%
2020 2,298,857 32,638,112 329,782 17,334 $38,505,580 $17,170,189 $16.75 $9.28 44.6%
2019 3,048,876 43,803,488 405,374 20,596 $39,172,931 $22,434,950 $12.85 $5.49 57.3%
2018 2,844,400 42,864,299 427,156 20,384 $34,264,635 $20,403,075 $12.05 $4.87 59.5%
2017 2,609,411 39,179,467 405,446 20,541 $30,014,627 $18,453,395 $11.50 $4.43 61.5%
2016 2,479,944 36,828,979 318,683 15,673 $25,868,110 $16,430,364 $10.43 $3.81 63.5%
2015 2,091,276 32,017,569 308,104 15,316 $25,529,928 $13,442,468 $12.21 $5.78 52.7%