2023 Fares Benchmarking Report released
The NineSquared Fares Benchmarking Report for 2023 has been released. The report is the ninth in the fares benchmarking series and again includes an assessment of the affordability of fares across public transport systems in 38 cities located in 20 countries. The report uses data from the NineSquared fares database which contains a much larger dataset and much more detail on fares and fare products offered in 95 cities around the world. More detail on the NineSquared fares database can be found here.
The fares benchmarking report estimates the number of minutes needed to be worked at both the minimum wage and the average wage applying in each city in the database to provide a comparative snapshot of the relative price of public transport in each city. The cost at both levels of wage rates is estimated for:
- The lowest priced, one-way, peak period ticket paid for using the lowest cost payment method available to full fare paying customers,
- The price of a 15km journey in each city, again, one way, in the peak period and paid for using the lowest cost payment method available, and
- The price of taking 10 trips in a week and 40 trips in a month to customers, again, in a peak period and paid for using the lowest payment method available to full fare paying customers.
Public transport agencies that offer flat fares (that is, a fare which does not change regardless of distance) generally have higher fares for shorter trips than public transport systems that have some form of distance-based fare. As a result, flat fare agencies improve their relative rank when considering the time required to earn enough for a 15km journey. Chicago and New York agencies both jump 12 places when longer journeys are considered, while Adelaide in Australia jumps 11 places to be the 14th least expensive public transport system in the report (based on minimum wage rates).
Get access to the full report here
