Sound Transit Link light rail: boardings with fare media, fare revenue and farebox recovery, 2017-2025

What this dataset measures

Sound Transit reports Link fare payment two ways: an automated count of boardings with fare media (ORCA taps, paper and mobile tickets, compared with automatic passenger counts) and Fare Ambassador inspections. The automated count covers every boarding and is the measure the agency uses in its financial plan and Fare Revenue Reports, so this dataset uses it as the annual series. Inspection-based evasion rates are included where the reports publish them (2018-2020) for comparison.

Geography

Washington, Central Puget Sound (Sound Transit district)

Unit of observation

Link light rail (1 and 2 Lines), calendar year

Update cadence

Annual, after each Sound Transit Fare Revenue Report

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

These related tables form this versioned dataset release. Each table has its own downloadable file and field definitions.

Link light rail fare payment and farebox recovery by year

Annual Link light rail ridership, fare-media use, fare revenue, operating expenses and farebox recovery as reported by Sound Transit, with the fare-media share derived where the boardings table allows.

Unit of observation: Calendar year

View this table

link-fare-annual.csv text/csv · 642 bytes

11 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Calendar year.	—	observed
boardings	integer	Total Link boardings (all payment types).	boardings	estimated
no_media	integer	Link boardings without fare media (row 'Boardings without Fare Media'). Blank where the report does not separate them (2017-2020).	boardings	estimated
fm_share	number	Share of Link boardings with fare media, as a fraction.	fraction	derived
fm_share_basis	string	'derived' if fm_share is computed from the boardings table, 'reported' if it is Sound Transit's stated percentage.	—	derived
fm_reported	number	Fare-media share as stated in the report text (rounded to whole percent).	fraction	observed
fare_revenue	integer	Link fare revenue.	US dollars (nominal)	observed
op_exp	integer	Link operating expenses used in Sound Transit's farebox recovery calculation (direct and indirect service operating costs).	US dollars (nominal)	observed
farebox_computed	number	fare_revenue / op_exp.	fraction	derived
farebox_reported	number	Link farebox recovery as Sound Transit reports it (whole percent).	fraction	observed
insp_evasion	number	Inspection-based Link fare evasion rate (share of inspected riders without valid fare).	fraction	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• build-link-fare-table.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 3.8 KB (3,900 bytes)

  Node.js script holding every input value typed from the Fare Revenue Reports and computing the CSV and every saved analysis. Run with: node build-link-fare-table.js (it writes to a data/ folder).

Saved analyses

Sources

1. Sound Transit, 2025 Fare Revenue Report Link boardings by payment type including boardings without fare media, fare revenue, operating expenses and farebox recovery for 2023-2025; policy minimums and targets; 2019 fare-media share and farebox recovery

   Retrieved October 18, 2026. Public record of a Washington public agency. Figures restated with attribution; the PDF is linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Government. Speaks against its own interest. Sound Transit's annual report to its Board on its own fare revenue. Its fare-media figures are unfavourable to the agency's fare-compliance record and below the assumptions in its own financial plan.

2. Sound Transit, 2024 Fare Revenue Report Link fare revenue, operating expenses and farebox recovery for 2022-2024

   Retrieved October 18, 2026. Public record of a Washington public agency. Figures restated with attribution; the PDF is linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Government. Speaks against its own interest. Sound Transit's annual report to its Board on its own fare revenue; same method as the 2025 report.

3. Sound Transit, 2023 Fare Revenue Report Link boardings by payment type including boardings without fare media for 2021-2023; youth free fares from September 2022; new fare compliance policy from November 2023

   Retrieved October 18, 2026. Public record of a Washington public agency. Figures restated with attribution; the PDF is linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Government. Speaks against its own interest. Sound Transit's annual report to its Board on its own fare revenue; same method as later reports.

4. Sound Transit, 2020 Fare Revenue Report Link boardings and fare revenue for 2018-2020; inspection-based fare evasion rate for 2020; 2020 farebox recovery

   Retrieved October 18, 2026. Public record of a Washington public agency. Figures restated with attribution; the PDF is linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Government. Sound Transit's annual fare revenue report for 2020, when electronic fare inspection was suspended for part of the year because of the pandemic.

5. Sound Transit, 2019 Fare Revenue Report Link boardings by passenger type and fare revenue for 2017-2019; inspection-based fare evasion rates for 2018 and 2019; Link farebox recovery for 2017-2019

   Retrieved October 18, 2026. Public record of a Washington public agency. Figures restated with attribution; the PDF is linked, not hosted.

   Reliability: Government. Sound Transit's pre-pandemic fare revenue report, when inspectors aimed to check 10% of Link riders and evasion was measured from those checks.

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible: Every input value is typed from a table or sentence in a Sound Transit Fare Revenue Report named in the field's sourceIds. The build script (build-link-fare-table.js, Node.js) recomputes every derived value and saved analysis from those inputs.

• A boarding without fare media is not the same as an unpaid ride. It includes youth 18 and under (who ride free since September 2022 and are not required to carry fare media), children, personal care attendants, police officers, and pass holders who did not tap, as well as riders who did not pay.
• Total boardings come from automatic passenger counters, which are estimates; errors in them flow directly into the fare-media share.
• The 2019 fare-media share (86%) is the value Sound Transit reports in later Fare Revenue Reports; the 2019 report itself does not separate boardings without fare media, so it cannot be recomputed here. A December 2025 Sound Transit board presentation gives 85% for 2019.
• No fare-media share is available for 2020, and no Link farebox recovery figure was found for 2021 (the 2021 and 2022 Fare Revenue Reports were not available at the URLs tried).
• Inspection-based evasion rates (2018-2020) measure only riders whom inspectors checked and are not comparable with the fare-media share.
• Farebox recovery uses Sound Transit's own definition (fare revenue divided by direct and indirect service operating costs). Sound Transit's minimum and target ratios changed in May 2024 (Link: 40% before; 17% minimum and 22% target after).