The farebox recovery ratio (also called fare recovery ratio, fare recovery rate or other terms) of a passenger transportation system is the fraction of operating expenses which are met by the fares paid by passengers. It is computed by dividing the system's total fare

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of product (business), goods and services related to the primary operations of a business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some compan ...

by its total operating expenses.

Fare structures

There are generally two types of fare structures: a simple, flat rate fare structure (pay a fixed fare regardless of time of day and/or travel distance) or a complex, variable rate fare structure (pay a variable fare depending on time of day and/or travel distance). A variable fare structure is typically associated with a higher recovery ratio, though it may simply be the case that such systems are implemented only on more profitable networks or modes such as commuter rail. Variable-rate fares require a higher initial investment in fare ticketing technologies such as the use of

contactless smart card A contactless smart card is a contactless credential whose dimensions are credit card size. Its embedded integrated circuits can store (and sometimes process) data and communicate with a terminal via NFC. Commonplace uses include transit ticket ...

s, turnstiles or fare gates, automated ticket machines, as well as IT infrastructure.

Farebox ratios around the world

The farebox recovery ratio is the ratio of fare revenue to total transport expenses for a given system. These two figures can be found in the financial statements of the operators. Oftentimes the operator runs multiple modes of transport (e.g. subway and bus), and there is no data for individual modes (segment analysis). In this case the operator is considered as one system, or a group of modes are collectively considered one system. Fare revenue is not the same as "transport" or "operational" revenue, as there are often secondary sources of revenue such as lockers and paid restrooms and advertisement revenue. Fare revenue is a subset of transport revenue, which is in turn part of total revenue along with "non-transport" or "non-operational" revenue. Total "transport" or "operational" expenses are a part of total expenses along with "non-transport" or "non-operational" expenses. Total transport expenses may include expansion projects if they are paid for by the operator.

Asia

Please note that, the " operating ratio" ( ) commonly published by some Asian systems is different from farebox recovery ratio even after inverting the number to turn cost per unit revenue into revenue per unit cost, as that figure includes all operating revenue instead of only the fare revenue."JR&私鉄全路線の収支「営業係数」計算式を大公開", 週刊東洋経済臨時増刊鉄道完全解明2014, p.61-62, February 20, 2014

Europe

North America

Canada

United States

Oceania

South America

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farebox Recovery Ratio Public transport fare collection Transport economics Rail transport-related lists