Thing about community bus

Yokohama City believes that in order to operate route buses stably and continuously in the future with limited financial resources, it is desirable to aim for operation that does not rely on financial support. For this reason, we do not operate so-called community buses, in which local governments outsource the operation to bus operators to compensate for the deficit of operating expenses.

The vehicle price of small buses is about 70 to 80% of large buses, and for route buses that use for a long period of time (about 10 years), labor costs account for about 60% of the total operating expenses, so the size of bus vehicles The difference in operating expenses is smaller.
For small buses with less than half the passenger capacity compared to large buses, it is difficult to secure profitability and the number of bus users is decreasing, introducing new small buses is a burden for bus operators. I am.

In general, there are cases where route buses with a fare of 100 yen have been introduced for policy-based tourism buses and so-called community buses. However, it is very difficult to secure profitability with a fare of 100 yen, and it is not implemented in Yokohama City.

There is no clear definition of community buses, but on routes that cannot be profitable with general route buses, buses in which local governments outsource the operation to bus operators and compensate for the deficit of operating expenses are generally community buses. It is called a bus.