11-14-2014, 09:56 AM
While there are many costs associated with bus routes, is there an easier number to use, e.g. every hour of bus service, based on driver salary (maybe with fuel/maintenance), requires $X in fares to achieve 50% cost recovery? Does it help to differentiate with a number like that, if we could say that route Z, which covers a low-density, inefficient street grid, has only ever hit 10% of the $X/h needed to achieve 50% fare recovery? When do you start to say that a particular route should be getting attention, e.g. it's recovery is close to 50% and either the route should be optimized by shortening it to achieve that cost recovery, or the service should be improved enough to attract usage giving us the cost recovery?