Here’s a chart that shows bus costs according to “systems hour”, the costs “per hour” for different transit systems as they relate to ridership. Looks like the Twin Cities ranks around average for a system its size.

I don’t even remember where I found this chart, to be honest. It was in a folder on my hard-drive. Maybe someone can point me in the right direction?

I’ve always head that Metro Transit ranks pretty well on a “costs per rider” basis. What’s the difference between costs per rider and costs per systems hour per rider? Does this kind of metric have to do with the amount of time that the bus in service? So systems with higher “ridership density” (i.e. fewer buses running around empty) would score better here?