Valley Metro

Bus at Valley Metro

Valley Metro carried 1,308,759 bus boardings in FY2024 at $7.93 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Bus Roanoke, VA
FY2024 boardings
1.31M
+7.5% vs FY2023
Cost per ride
$7.93
+5.9% nationwide $8.24
Subsidy per ride
$6.77
+8.5% operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
14.7%
-12.3% nationwide 11%
Passenger miles
7.43M
average trip 5.68 miles
Operating cost
$10.4M
Vehicles in service
24
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
13.65
95.8K 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 1,308,759 7,428,161 95,850 $10,384,590 $7.93 $6.77 14.7% 24

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 Valley Metro reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2024 1,308,759 7,428,161 1,561,291 95,850 $10,384,590 $1,528,886 $7.93 $6.77 14.7%
2023 1,216,902 6,935,071 1,611,963 105,144 $9,119,151 $1,530,593 $7.49 $6.24 16.8%
2022 1,071,150 6,104,437 1,668,204 116,530 $8,515,840 $1,051,109 $7.95 $6.97 12.3%
2021 1,037,170 5,910,786 1,785,107 116,550 $8,366,670 $1,053,761 $8.07 $7.05 12.6%
2020 1,613,442 9,164,530 1,782,712 115,210 $8,143,127 $1,278,299 $5.05 $4.25 15.7%
2019 1,895,355 10,765,616 1,877,977 113,283 $8,131,979 $1,762,425 $4.29 $3.36 21.7%
2018 1,983,028 11,263,599 1,640,806 112,706 $7,275,133 $1,787,674 $3.67 $2.77 24.6%
2017 2,114,650 12,011,212 1,605,486 109,526 $7,046,791 $1,777,929 $3.33 $2.49 25.2%
2016 2,211,393 14,727,877 1,601,987 109,198 $7,011,634 $1,887,026 $3.17 $2.32 26.9%
2015 2,288,335 15,240,311 1,563,403 109,265 $7,286,263 $2,015,768 $3.18 $2.30 27.7%