3 ms·
When the revenue is that small a percentage of the operating expense, I have to wonder what the incremental cost is of that revenue. Do you happen to know? Mo
by mmt 8y ago
When the revenue is that small a percentage of the operating expense, I have to wonder what the incremental cost is of that revenue.
Do you happen to know?
Modern fare collection systems can be expensive boondoggles in their own right. That likely doesn't apply to a historic trolley, but you mentioned ticketing services, and even one annual salary is a hefty proportion of that $700k.
- ethagknight 8y agoI’m an armchair transit specialist, and I do not know specifically, but generally, it would seem the cost for each additional passenger on a transit system follows a step function such that n + 1 < $0.01 until you hit ‘capacity’, a loosely defined term at which point the next passenger causes losses (congestion and delay boarding and disembarking). In a properly running system, the fixed costs dramatically outweigh the additional burden of each passenger, in the same way that the bus engine hardly noticed the additional weight of another 170 lb passenger relative to the 40,000 lb bus. Even with consumables like ticketing, the whole revenue system far outweighs the increment.