Transit Calculator
A 12-mile subway ride with one transfer and ten trips a week costs $43.50 a week, $188.35 a month and $2,262.00 a year at a $2.90 base fare, and takes about 29 minutes each way. This calculator is for that commuter question only: how long does the ride take, and what does the fare pattern cost over a week, a month and a year? It does not price freight, does not burn fuel, and does not know any real agency’s fare table.
Speeds are planning averages and the 50% transfer charge is a modelling rule, not a fare policy. Real fares, transfer windows and timetables vary by city and agency.
Quick Answer
A 12-mile subway trip at a $2.90 base fare with 1 transfer costs $4.35 per trip, takes 29 minutes, and at 10 trips a week totals $43.50 weekly, $188.35 monthly and $2,262.00 annually. Those figures are pre-filled in the calculator above, so clicking Calculate reproduces them exactly.
Two planning rules you should know before trusting the numbers
First, the speeds are fixed planning averages: bus 15, subway 25, train 35 and light rail 20 miles per hour. A bus in rush-hour traffic or a train with long station stops will not match them. Second, every transfer adds 50% of the base fare. Many real agencies do the opposite, letting you transfer free inside a time window, so if your agency does that, set transfers to 0 and use the base fare alone. The tool cannot know your agency’s policy.
- Quick Answer
- How to use the transit calculator
- The transit formulas
- Worked example: 12 miles by subway, 10 trips a week
- How the answer changes by mode and by pattern
- What competing calculators miss
- Passes, caps and free transfers: the comparison this tool cannot make for you
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to use the transit calculator
Enter five values and read time plus four cost totals. The results stay hidden until you calculate.
- Enter the distance: one-way miles for a single trip. Twelve miles is pre-filled.
- Pick the transit type: bus, subway/metro, train or light rail. The choice sets the planning speed only; it does not change the fare.
- Enter the base fare: what one leg costs before transfers. Use the fare your agency actually charges.
- Enter the number of transfers: changes of vehicle on one trip. One transfer is pre-filled.
- Enter trips per week: one-way trips, not days. Ten trips is five round trips, the standard five-day commute.
- Click Calculate: travel time appears at the top, followed by cost per trip, weekly, monthly and annual totals.
Invalid entries show one inline message, “Please enter valid values.”: a blank or non-numeric distance, base fare or trips count, a distance of zero or less, a negative fare, or a trips count of zero or less. The old tool showed the same check as a browser alert; the message is unchanged, only its delivery is better.
The transit formulas
Travel time is distance divided by the planning speed for the mode, converted to minutes. Cost per trip is the base fare plus half the base fare for each transfer. Weekly cost multiplies the per-trip cost by trips per week, monthly cost multiplies the weekly figure by 4.33, and annual cost multiplies it by 52.
Cost per trip = base fare + (transfers × base fare × 0.5)
Weekly = cost per trip × trips per week; Monthly = weekly × 4.33; Annual = weekly × 52
Worked example: 12 ÷ 25 × 60 = 29 minutes; $2.90 + (1 × $1.45) = $4.35 per trip
The 4.33 monthly factor and the 52 annual factor are consistent with each other: a month is treated as 4.33 weeks, and a year as 52 weeks. Twelve months at 4.33 weeks is 51.96 weeks, 0.04 weeks short of a 52-week year, which is $1.74 on a $43.50 week. The displayed monthly figure rounds the exact $188.355 down to $188.35, so $188.35 × 12 = $2,260.20 sits $1.80 below the $2,262.00 annual total: $1.74 from the week-count gap, plus $0.06 of rounding. The difference is rounding-level, but it is real, and it comes from the tool’s own factors rather than from an error in your arithmetic.
Worked example: 12 miles by subway, 10 trips a week
Distance 12 miles divided by the subway speed of 25 miles per hour is 0.48 hours, which is 28.8 minutes, rounded to 29 minutes by the tool. One transfer adds half of $2.90, which is $1.45, so a trip costs $4.35. Ten trips a week cost $43.50. The monthly figure is $43.50 × 4.33 = $188.35, and the annual figure is $43.50 × 52 = $2,262.00. If the same commuter rode free-transfer buses instead, setting transfers to 0, the per-trip cost would fall to $2.90 and the annual total to $1,508.00, a $754.00 difference that shows how much the transfer rule matters.
How the answer changes by mode and by pattern
Mode changes time only in this tool, never fare, because the fare is entered by hand. Pattern changes cost only, never time. The table below separates the two effects, using the worked example’s $2.90 fare and 1 transfer throughout the mode rows.
| Scenario (12 miles) | Speed | Travel time | Cost per trip | Annual (10 trips/week) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bus | 15 mph | 48 min | $4.35 | $2,262.00 |
| Subway (worked example) | 25 mph | 29 min | $4.35 | $2,262.00 |
| Train | 35 mph | 21 min | $4.35 | $2,262.00 |
| Light rail | 20 mph | 36 min | $4.35 | $2,262.00 |
| Subway, no transfers | 25 mph | 29 min | $2.90 | $1,508.00 |
| Subway, 14 trips a week | 25 mph | 29 min | $4.35 | $3,166.80 |
Read the table as a warning against comparing modes on cost alone: the tool gives every mode the same fare because you typed one fare, while real agencies charge different fares by mode, distance and zone. The time column is where mode genuinely matters here, and even that is a planning average, not a timetable.
What competing calculators miss
Commute cost tools online tend to solve a different problem from this one, and the differences are worth stating:
- Daily-cost times days tools (MrCalcu): clean monthly arithmetic from a daily cost, days per week and weeks per month, plus a pass-versus-ticket comparison. What they skip is travel time entirely, and they ask for a daily cost you must already have computed.
- Mode-comparison tables (HouseHuntingTools, Blade): car, rail, bus and bike side by side with monthly and annual totals, which is the right frame for choosing a mode. They are one-off tables for one city or corridor, not a tool that reruns on your distance and fare.
- Driving-versus-transit calculators (AgentCalc): fuel, parking and tolls on the driving side against a transit figure, with a monthly saving headline. Strong where the question is “should I drive,” but they need fuel efficiency and fuel price, inputs this tool deliberately does not ask for.
- Pass break-even guides (NYC Moov): the genuinely useful next step this page does not take: compare your pay-per-ride total against a monthly pass price and a weekly fare cap. This tool gives you the pay-per-ride total to compare; it does not fetch the pass price.
- The gap this page fills: one commuter’s own distance, mode, fare, transfers and weekly pattern turned into time plus four cost totals in one run, with the transfer rule and the planning speeds stated rather than hidden.
Passes, caps and free transfers: the comparison this tool cannot make for you
Most regular commuters do not pay per ride forever. Agencies sell weekly and monthly passes, cap weekly spending, or allow free transfers inside a window: OC Transpo, for example, includes a 90 to 105-minute transfer window in a single-ride fare, and London’s Hopper fare allows unlimited bus and tram journeys within an hour for one fare. None of that is in this tool. The practical workflow is to run this calculator first for the pay-per-ride total, then compare that total against your agency’s pass price and cap. If the pass is cheaper, the pass wins regardless of what the weekly total says, and if transfers are free in your city, set transfers to 0 before comparing. For the cost of a whole commute including driving, the commute expense calculator is the wider tool, and the commute versus rent savings calculator frames the bigger move-or-commute question. For freight and shipment pricing, which this page is not, see the transportation rate calculator.
Frequently asked questions
It computes one-way travel time from distance and a planning speed, and fare costs from a base fare, a 50% charge per transfer and trips per week. A 12-mile subway trip at $2.90 with 1 transfer takes 29 minutes and costs $4.35 per trip, $43.50 a week, $188.35 a month and $2,262.00 a year.
No. It has no fuel efficiency, fuel price, parking or toll inputs, and it cannot price a car trip. For a driving commute, use the commute expense calculator instead.
They are fixed planning averages built into the tool: bus 15, subway 25, train 35 and light rail 20 miles per hour. They are not timetable speeds and they do not account for traffic, stops or delays. Treat the time as a planning estimate.
That is the tool’s modelling rule: transfer cost equals transfers × 50% of the base fare. Many agencies charge less, including free transfers inside a time window. If your agency does that, set transfers to 0.
Monthly cost uses 4.33 weeks and annual cost uses 52 weeks, and 4.33 × 12 is 51.96 weeks, not 52. That 0.04-week gap is $1.74 on a $43.50 week. The displayed monthly figure rounds the exact $188.355 down to $188.35, so $188.35 × 12 is $2,260.20, which sits $1.80 below the $2,262.00 annual total: $1.74 from the week-count gap, plus $0.06 of rounding.
No. Distance is miles only and the tool does not convert units. Convert kilometres to miles first by dividing by 1.609344, then enter the miles figure.
No. It gives the pay-per-ride total only. Compare that total yourself against your agency’s pass price or weekly fare cap, since the tool has no fare table and cannot fetch pass prices.
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser, needs no account, and stores nothing. Copy the result with Copy Results or send it to another app with Share results.
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References
- American Public Transportation Association. 2026 Public Transportation Fact Book (average passenger fare per unlinked trip $1.48 across modes in report year 2024; average bus fare $1.55, light rail $2.34, heavy rail $1.42 in the 2025 Fare Database). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- American Public Transportation Association. Economic Impact of Public Transportation Investment (average per-trip transit cost $1.45 weighted across fixed-route modes, against $12.76 for taxi/TNC trips). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Congressional Research Service. Surface Transportation Reauthorization: Public Transportation (average fare per trip $2.03 in 2019 falling to $1.53 in 2024 in inflation-adjusted 2025 dollars; ridership recovery by mode). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- OC Transpo. Prices (single-ride fare includes a 90 to 105-minute transfer window; monthly pass prices by rider category; fare capping at the DayPass and monthly pass levels). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Transport for London newsroom. Londoners encouraged to hop about the capital this summer (Hopper fare: unlimited bus and tram journeys within one hour for a single fare, held at £1.75 until November 1, 2026). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Busline Magazine. FTA Report: Transit Ridership Is On The Rise (Federal Transit Administration report: 6.9 billion trips in 2023, up 17.3% from 2022, across bus, subway, light rail and other modes). Accessed October 24, 2026.