Sun Tran

Bus at Sun Tran

Sun Tran carried 16,597,658 bus boardings in FY2025 at $4.61 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Bus Tucson, AZ
FY2025 boardings
16.6M
+5.1% vs FY2024
Cost per ride
$4.61
-1.1% nationwide $8.57
Subsidy per ride
$4.10
-0.6% operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
11%
-4% nationwide 10.4%
Passenger miles
53.3M
average trip 3.21 miles
Operating cost
$76.6M
Vehicles in service
145
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
27.95
593.9K 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 16,597,658 53,284,314 593,914 $76,587,537 $4.61 $4.10 11% 145

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 Sun Tran reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2025 16,597,658 53,284,314 7,294,153 593,914 $76,587,537 $8,458,470 $4.61 $4.10 11%
2024 15,792,573 50,801,347 7,316,891 592,263 $73,656,322 $8,472,828 $4.66 $4.13 11.5%
2023 14,615,275 52,311,036 7,354,094 612,986 $68,712,128 $3,329,327 $4.70 $4.47 4.8%
2022 13,042,145 53,677,395 7,533,020 631,289 $65,889,194 $257,600 $5.05 $5.03 0.4%
2021 10,894,760 46,374,524 7,902,896 669,149 $50,125,124 $334,513 $4.60 $4.57 0.7%
2020 12,346,810 47,142,281 8,206,957 689,783 $61,466,955 $8,274,280 $4.98 $4.31 13.5%
2019 14,262,758 57,873,100 8,235,672 682,515 $58,921,385 $11,328,406 $4.13 $3.34 19.2%
2018 15,205,419 74,155,142 8,458,300 707,441 $61,293,025 $10,943,859 $4.03 $3.31 17.9%
2017 16,388,315 78,572,964 8,233,238 683,381 $57,033,743 $10,655,133 $3.48 $2.83 18.7%
2016 15,743,501 79,460,501 7,399,193 603,187 $56,582,423 $9,232,193 $3.59 $3.01 16.3%
2015 19,657,931 85,473,786 8,189,813 665,370 $58,279,595 $12,171,995 $2.96 $2.35 20.9%