Public transportation received $69 billion in subsidies in 2022, compared with $90 billion in subsidies to highways and $20 billion to airlines, according to data released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics last week. These data include all government revenues and expenditures on these modes of travel, with the revenues broken out by “user-based” and non-user-based (meaning taxes or deficit spending).
(millions of dollars except passenger-miles in millions and Subsidies/PM in dollars)
| Mode | Revenue | Expenditure | Net | Passenger-Miles | Subsidy/PM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transit | 11,188 | 80,527 | -69,338 | 30,082 | $2.300 |
| Highways | 161,299 | 251,777 | -90,478 | 4,708,270 | 0.019 |
| Air | 37,663 | 58,348 | -20,685 | 992,201 | 0.021 |
| Amtrak | 2,506 | 5,975 | -3,470 | 4,886 | 0.710 |
While these results are two years old, it takes awhile for data from many different sources to percolate through Department of Transportation channels. Since those sources include all state and local governments, collecting and verifying the data can be time consuming. Continue reading
