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US cities pay too much for buses

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355 points pavel_lishin | 9 comments | 26 Sep 25 13:57 UTC | HN request time: 1.008s | source | bottom
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bluGill ◴[26 Sep 25 15:13 UTC] No.45387448[source]▶
Don't be fooled, paying less won't help much since the cost of a bus is a small part of the costs of running a bus route. about half your costs are the bus driver. The most expensive bus is still only 1/3rd of your hourly cost of running the bus. If a more expensive bus is more reliable that could more than make up for a more expensive bus (I don't have any numbers to do math on though).

Half the costs of running a bus route are the driver's labor. The other half needs to pay for maintenance, the cost of the bus, and all the other overhead.

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1. logifail ◴[26 Sep 25 18:05 UTC] No.45389306[source]▶
> about half your costs are the bus driver

(Genuine question) is this true around the globe, or is that US-specific?

We were in Portugal over the summer and travelled with Flixbus (for the first time ever) to get from Porto to Lisbon. Were impressed by the high-quality service and great value for money. Wonder how much the driver makes per hour?

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2. rootusrootus ◴[26 Sep 25 18:23 UTC] No.45389502[source]▶
> We were in Portugal

Notably, Portugal has the lowest income, by far, of any Western European country. I would expect their bus drivers make considerably less than equivalent bus drivers in the US.

3. bluGill ◴[26 Sep 25 18:36 UTC] No.45389635[source]▶
US - though richer countries arounde the world have wages close to the us. Portugal as the other reply said will have different numbers. Still labor is going to be a large factor.
4. marcosdumay ◴[26 Sep 25 18:39 UTC] No.45389671[source]▶
It's true in developed and developing countries, it's probably not true in all poor countries. I'd guess the driver makes for a larger share of the cost in Portugal than in the US.

But the one most important factor defining the total cost by trip is the number of passengers by trip. If 60 people all show up to pay the driver's daily salary, it gets quite cheap.

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5. lazyasciiart ◴[26 Sep 25 19:35 UTC] No.45390203[source]▶
Those services are pretty different to local bus routes - people book ahead, tickets aren’t covered by student passes or subsidized by employers, people care a lot more about comfort and are much less likely to be daily riders, etc.
6. whimsicalism ◴[26 Sep 25 20:12 UTC] No.45390577[source]▶
snip
7. bpicolo ◴[27 Sep 25 00:50 UTC] No.45392489[source]▶
Portuguese salaries are miserable
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8. marcosdumay ◴[27 Sep 25 02:14 UTC] No.45392784{3}[source]▶
"Miserable" like in "covers the cost of a $300k machine in 15 years"?

Bus drivers don't get software developer salaries.

9. tiagod ◴[27 Sep 25 02:32 UTC] No.45392866{3}[source]▶
As in $1000/month before taxes, with rent for pretty much any apartment costing quite a bit more than that.