Operating cost
What will this service change cost?
Every service-change budget rests on three numbers: the buses you need, the revenue hours you run, and the annual cost. Transit Planner updates all three as you draw the change on the map.
How the cost is built
Buses required
Cycle time, both directions plus recovery, divided by the headway, rounded up.
Revenue hours
The trips you run across the service span, times how long each trip takes, times the service days in a year.
Annual cost
Revenue hours times your cost per revenue hour.
One route, worked through
Say a route runs 40 minutes one way, with 6 minutes of recovery at each end. It runs every 30 minutes for 12 hours on weekdays.
- Cycle time
- 40 + 6 + 40 + 6 = 92 minutes
- Buses required
- 92 ÷ 30 = 3.07, rounded up to 4
- Revenue hours
- 24 trips each way, 48 in all, at 40 minutes each: 32 hours a weekday, or 8,160 over 255 weekdays
- Annual cost
- 8,160 hours × $150 = $1,224,000
Tighten the headway to 20 minutes and the same route needs 5 buses and 12,240 revenue hours. That costs $1,836,000 a year, which is $612,000 more. Which headway on your network would you price first?
An example with weekday service only. The $150 is the national NTD cost per revenue hour that Transit Planner starts from. Your rate will differ.
Rates you can edit
The annual cost is only as good as the rate behind it. Change the cost per revenue hour to match your agency.
The national NTD rate Free
Start from a national NTD default for cost per revenue hour, and edit it.
Your agency’s own rate Pro
Use your agency’s own published cost per revenue hour.
Frequently asked questions
- Where do the cost rates come from?
- A national NTD default on the Free plan, or your agency’s own published cost per revenue hour on Pro.
- Does it account for layover and peak buses?
- Yes. Cycle time includes recovery and layover, and the bus count is cycle time divided by the headway, rounded up. The busiest part of the day sets how many buses you need.
- Can I compare several versions of a change?
- Yes. Draw as many scenarios as you like; the buses, revenue hours and cost update for each.
See it on your network in 15 minutes
We load your GTFS and walk through one real service change with you: the cost, who it affects, and the report. No sales script.