Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District

Bus at Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District

Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District carried 3,706,882 bus boardings in FY2024 at $12.57 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Bus Santa Cruz, CA
FY2024 boardings
3.71M
+18% vs FY2023
Cost per ride
$12.57
-1.2% nationwide $8.24
Subsidy per ride
$10.59
+1.8% operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
15.7%
-13.8% nationwide 11%
Passenger miles
19.1M
average trip 5.14 miles
Operating cost
$46.6M
Vehicles in service
58
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
21.58
171.8K 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 3,706,882 19,070,073 171,783 $46,582,964 $12.57 $10.59 15.7% 58

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 Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2024 3,706,882 19,070,073 2,253,439 171,783 $46,582,964 $7,323,407 $12.57 $10.59 15.7%
2023 3,141,061 14,279,709 2,148,872 163,767 $39,966,926 $7,286,124 $12.72 $10.40 18.2%
2022 2,659,929 11,730,286 2,210,921 166,287 $41,288,210 $6,792,351 $15.52 $12.97 16.5%
2021 861,059 3,797,270 1,801,241 138,134 $33,832,063 $4,047,733 $39.29 $34.59 12%
2020 3,344,208 14,097,443 1,966,903 160,107 $37,627,114 $5,912,990 $11.25 $9.48 15.7%
2019 4,760,464 20,738,679 2,261,594 184,077 $35,922,580 $7,877,195 $7.55 $5.89 21.9%
2018 4,758,093 21,231,214 2,255,120 184,384 $35,983,301 $7,905,278 $7.56 $5.90 22%
2017 4,787,727 20,443,594 2,283,490 184,234 $32,863,894 $7,274,012 $6.86 $5.34 22.1%
2016 5,164,160 27,550,923 2,650,889 201,434 $32,891,002 $7,368,090 $6.37 $4.94 22.4%
2015 5,325,107 28,578,390 2,642,561 201,455 $32,966,253 $7,407,454 $6.19 $4.80 22.5%