Valley Transportation Authority

Bus at Valley Transportation Authority

Valley Transportation Authority carried 22,862,014 bus boardings in FY2025 at $14.80 per ride. Ten years of National Transit Database figures for this service, with safety, reliability and the national comparison.

Bus San Jose, CA
FY2025 boardings
22.9M
+1% vs FY2024
Cost per ride
$14.80
+3.8% nationwide $8.57
Subsidy per ride
$13.83
+4.6% operating cost less fares
Fare recovery
6.6%
-9.7% nationwide 10.4%
Passenger miles
106.6M
average trip 4.66 miles
Operating cost
$338.5M
Vehicles in service
358
at maximum service
Rides per revenue hour
16.88
1.35M 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 22,612,941 105,606,709 1,336,635 $335,893,594 $14.85 $13.87 6.6% 347
Purchased transportation 249,073 980,764 17,968 $2,576,691 $10.35 $10.15 1.9% 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 Valley Transportation Authority reported this service.

Year Boardings Passenger miles Revenue miles Revenue hours Operating cost Fares Cost / ride Subsidy / ride Fare recovery
2025 22,862,014 106,587,473 15,460,492 1,354,603 $338,470,285 $22,334,256 $14.80 $13.83 6.6%
2024 22,626,518 105,734,988 15,684,072 1,363,609 $322,614,333 $23,585,093 $14.26 $13.22 7.3%
2023 19,381,698 92,192,212 15,131,660 1,297,617 $308,179,783 $21,569,288 $15.90 $14.79 7%
2022 15,181,163 78,212,937 14,227,007 1,212,589 $284,253,966 $18,157,218 $18.72 $17.53 6.4%
2021 9,714,333 48,594,780 12,216,365 1,058,052 $263,488,280 $10,760,576 $27.12 $26.02 4.1%
2020 22,009,575 112,025,188 14,442,069 1,254,881 $258,776,144 $21,269,415 $11.76 $10.79 8.2%
2019 27,472,086 137,216,139 15,948,425 1,375,803 $266,964,372 $26,969,177 $9.72 $8.74 10.1%
2018 28,473,346 138,466,771 16,077,715 1,379,113 $260,258,360 $26,479,369 $9.14 $8.21 10.2%
2017 29,464,079 152,012,704 15,902,113 1,369,894 $250,211,881 $25,655,427 $8.49 $7.62 10.3%
2016 32,624,190 191,886,598 15,712,032 1,354,373 $244,575,300 $28,254,567 $7.50 $6.63 11.6%
2015 33,040,872 176,478,560 15,440,635 1,319,558 $240,451,144 $29,054,218 $7.28 $6.40 12.1%