2011 National Transit Database

The Federal Transit Administration has published the 2011 National Transit Database, which has cost, fare, ridership, and other data for every transit agency, broken down by mode, that receives federal support. You can download the raw data in two formats: the database, which is easier to manipulate, or data tables, which are easier to read (links download self-extracting .exe files; if you have a Mac, you can expand these files using Stuffit Expander).

Either of these self-extracting files includes about 20 to 30 spreadsheets with data ranging from operators wages to energy consumption. It has become an annual ritual for the Antiplanner to extract the most interesting data and compile it in a single summary spreadsheet. The 2011 summary presents the following data by agency and mode:

  1. Transit agency identification number
  2. Mode
  3. Who runs the service (DO=the transit agency, PT=a contractor)
  4. Full agency name
  5. Agency nickname
  6. City (usually the headquarters city of the agency)
  7. Urban area
  8. Passenger trips
  9. Passenger miles
  10. Vehicle revenue miles
  11. Fares
  12. Operating costs
  13. Maintenance costs (what the database calls “existing service” capital improvements)
  14. Capital costs (what the database calls “expanded service” capital improvements)
  15. Number of vehicles
  16. Total number of seats on those vehicles
  17. Standing room on those vehicles
  18. Directional route miles (rail only–note that 50 route miles of rail equals 100 directional route miles)
  19. BTUs of energy consumed
  20. Pounds of carbon dioxide emitted

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The first fifteen columns are straight from the database. Seats and standing room are calculated by multiplying the seats and standing room of each type of vehicle by the number of vehicles. BTUs of energy are calculated by multiplying kilowatt-hours, gallons, or other units of fuel by the standard number of BTUs per unit of energy (scroll down to “notes” to see standard multipliers). These are all pretty straightforward.

Carbon dioxide is also straightforward for fossil-fueled vehicles as the amount emitted is exactly proportional to the gallons burned. Electric vehicles is not so straightforward as it depends on the source of the electricity. The Antiplanner estimated emissions based on the mix of power sources (see table 5 for each state) in the state in which each transit agency is located. This is not precise, as electricity often crosses state lines, but it is a good first approximation. Also, state-by-state breakdowns are not yet available for 2011, so I used 2010 data. This can be updated when the 2011 data come out, which (if 2010’s data are any indication) will be in January.

Rows 2 through 1611 in the summary spreadsheet have the above data for each agency and mode. Rows 1615 through 1634 have totals by mode. Since there are some gaps in the energy spreadsheet, rows 1639 through 1658 have totals by mode for those agencies that provided energy data, making it possible to calculate average energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

Rows 1663 through 2132 summarize the data by urban area. This is provisional as I may have misplaced a few transit agencies in the wrong urban areas. A flaw in Excel means that I have to assign each agency to an urban area by hand. I haven’t yet calculated such things as cost per trip or BTUs per passenger mile, but this can easily be done with the summary spreadsheet.

This year, the Federal Transit Administration added several new modes to the database. First, automated guideways and monorails were merged into one mode, which makes sense because neither is very important.

Second, light rail was broken down into light rail and streetcars, which is something I always did by hand anyway. Third, a new class of rail line was created called “hybrid rail.” This seems to include lines that were once called commuter rail but that run all day instead of just during rush hours. This is also a useful distinction.

Finally, buses were broken down into regular bus service, commuter buses, and bus-rapid transit. This might be useful, though I wonder if the actual services grade into one another to such a degree that the divisions may not be consistent from one agency to another. Denver’s Regional Transit District, for example, was running buses from Boulder to Denver on schedules that would qualify as “bus-rapid transit” long before that term was coined, but they are not identified as such in the database.

In any case, I hope you find the spreadsheet useful and please let me know if you find any errors.

Update: I’ve just uploaded a revised file (which has the same name as the previous one) with calculations of BTUs and CO2 per passenger mile; occupancy rates; and costs per trip and passenger mile. The original file with just the basic data is still available under a different name.

For the revised file, I also changed the modes listed for a few rail lines. Philadelphia’s light-rail line was listed as a streetcar, but I consider it closer to light rail so I changed it. Streetcar lines in Little Rock, Tacoma, and Tucson were listed as light rail, so I changed them to streetcar.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

13 Responses to 2011 National Transit Database

  1. msetty says:

    Randal, once again I want to thank you for doing this work so the rest of us don’t have to.

    Your work certainly is wildly uneven, given your NYC subway comments the other day (and the goofy responses in that thread which weren’t worth the effort to respond to).

    Methinks to get a full handle on the NTD stats and calculating performance measures, it would be useful to include revenue vehicle hours (RVH) in addition to RVM. For rail modes, does NTD include train miles and hours? I’ve never seen it in all my years of looking over such data.

    • Dan says:

      The thing is, most in that group of ideologues don’t check links. It is true that Randal definitely provides a service here. Those ideologues who parrot talking points don’t check these data sources.

      DS

  2. metrosucks says:

    Yeah msetty, like asshole Dan, you can’t say a good thing without also throwing a bad thing in there with it.

  3. msetty says:

    No, metrosucky, you’re the champion of not ever having anything positive to say.

    “asshole Dan”
    …hmnnn….some projection by a right wing A-hole here, I’d say.

    Putz.

    • bennett says:

      Yeah. The irony is almost too much to handle.

      • metrosucks says:

        bennett, you could gotta stop standing up for these pr!cks. I am sure you are a great guy, who as a planner is professionally concerned with meeting his community’s needs and doing what’s best for his city. That’s very admirable in a world full of a-holes that work at agencies like METRO and shove their “choices” down residents’ throats.

        So don’t stand up for these guys; it just smears you with the same offal they are covered in. When I say planners suck, I mean planners like Dan, and lobbyists/shills like msetty. I don’t mean you; you are *specifically* excluded.

    • metrosucks says:

      Mikey, I believe I already established exactly what you “are”, a charge, I might add, that you were too cowardly to rebut. The great Mike Setty suddenly finds his big mouth inadequate to the challenge at hand?

      Don’t make me repeat what I said before.

      And for the record, I am a registered Democrat who supported Gore in 2000 (too young to vote), voted for Kerry in 2004, and didn’t vote in 2008 because I was embroiled in a personal issue that distracted me (no, not because of racism).

      Any hand-waving or puerile charges you could make at this point are entirely off-base and overwhelmingly irrelevant to what *you* and *Dan* are.

  4. msetty says:

    Ah, Metrosucky, another case of projection.

    I really, really, really, really don’t care what you think I am, if only because you reveal yourself to be a young inexperienced punk-ass and world-class asshole.

    Whatever “personal issues” you may have would probably be solved if you started to again take the meds your shrink obviously prescribed for you (if you don’t have a shrink, you need one). Your daily experiences would be more pleasant, too, since your anger would not build up so much.

    And why do you hate Seattle Metro so much? Did they change a bus route on you or something, perhaps forcing you to transfer to the LRT or some other bus route? And why Metro as opposed, say to Pierce Transit or Sound Transit? I’m sure there’s a shrink that would like to know.

    • metrosucks says:

      Speak of projection; look who’s the angry one. You’re also not smart enough (what a surprise) to figure out that the “metro” is for Portland, Oregon’s Metro council, NOT Seattle’s bus agency, which I have never used and have no reason to like or dislike (my older brother, who used it, reports it is the usual mix of bums and poor people).

      As for you, generally, I don’t say this, because I think people are generally pretty equal, but you’re scum, gutter trash. It’s literally beneath my dignity to address trash like you. My personal condition wasn’t anger or mental (unlike you, methinks); it was dealing with a diagnosis of type one diabetes, a condition I pay for fully out of pocket.

      You’ve blown off your big mouth from day one you started visiting this blog, tearing down “opponents” with terms like “tea bagger”. No wonder you’re some slimy transit shill; you could never work a 9-5 job without being fired, I bet.

      I’m done responding to you; you can go beat up on your wife or girlfriend if it makes you feel better; I’m not inclined to violence and would never raise my hand to a woman, but I wonder about you.

  5. msetty says:

    Of course I could have Metrosucky all wrong. Perhaps venting his spleen in Internet comment forums such as this one IS his anger management therapy.

    Certainly this is safer and a lot less of a threat to his pocketbook–and ability to walk freely about than, say–beating his wife/girlfriend, starting bar fights, flipping off and/or fighting cops, or joining a boxing gym–which often have high monthly dues. Why he’s too chickenshit to reveal his true identity online still puzzles. Of course Metrosucky is no batman!

    • msetty says:

      I also must admit that “trolling” online can be fun, particularly when the target is someone like “Metrosucks”. Of course it isn’t worth the trouble if such hijinks require more than ten minutes per day. I have far more important things to do, such as watch old Gilligan’s Island or Three Stooges reruns or watch the grass grow.

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