There have been a slew of recent articles about the dilemma facing public transit agencies.  With ridership increasing in lock step with fuel costs many agencies face record ridership and record deficits. 

The New York Times has an article today about Rochester NY and how the Rochester Regional Transit Service is breaking a nationwide trend and lowering bus fares.  Is there a blueprint here for other cities?  Not exactly.  The details of Rochester's transit turnaround make comparisons to larger cities misleading. 

The article explains that Rochester Transit received over 50% of their $62m budget in state aid.  Rochester runs just 265 buses compared to over 4,500 along with 6,200 subway cars in New York.  Rochester Transit also receives $10m per year from the local school district which provides city buses passes to all it's students at a rate of more than 2x the published fare. 

Transit agencies tend to cover about 25-40% of their operating costs with fares.  Seems Rochester is pretty typical after all.