The National Transit Summaries and Trends (NTST) is published annually by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to describe the state of public transit using most the most currently available NTD data publications. It aggregates the data submitted to the National Transit Database by public transit agencies across the country, grouping and summarizing along relevant identifiers that might not otherwise be available using other NTD data publications.

The main goal of the NTST is to present and summarize transit data in an easy-to-read format and provide a clear overview of public transit in the United States in terms of service provided and consumed. It also displays trends in key transit metrics over at least the last decade. The archive of NTST publications may be accessed here.

The report is organized as follows:

• Executive Summary 
• Chapter 1. Introduction and Fast Facts About Transit in 2023
• Chapter 2. Overview of Public Transportation and Reporting Requirements 
• Chapter 3. Overview of Transit Agency Organizations
• Chapter 4. Overview of Transit Operations
• Chapter 5. Overview of Urbanized Areas
• Chapter 6. Transit Service by Area
• Chapter 7. Geographic Coverage
• Chapter 8. Vehicle and Facility Asset Inventory
• Chapter 9. Asset Condition and Performance
• Chapter 10. Service Supplied
• Chapter 11. Ridership
• Chapter 12. Sources of Funds
• Chapter 13. Capital Funding
• Chapter 14. Operating Expenses
• Chapter 15. Service Efficiency
• Chapter 16. Cost Effectiveness
• Chapter 17. Safety
• Appendix

Change Log:

• Version 1.0: Original release
• Version 1.1 (released 10/29/24): Makes accessibility improvements, updates calculation error in Operating Expense per PMT by mode in Exhibit 16.1.
• Version 1.2 (released 12/2/24): Improves narrative description of Exhibits 12.10 and 12.11 and corrects the following errors: 
  • Issue with totals presented in each category in Exhibit 8.6. Rural Reporting is now excluded from this exhibit and FTA has updated the surrounding narrative accordingly.
  • Error in text above Exhibit 9.8 describing percentage of facilities not in State of Good Repair.