Classification: Categories are the author's mapping of each agency's own reporting onto three buckets, the MTA, TfL, and MTR do not use a common chart of accounts, so shares are comparable only approximately. Fiscal years also differ: MTA figures are the calendar-2025 adopted budget, TfL figures are audited actuals for the year ended March 31, 2025, and MTR figures are audited actuals for calendar 2024.

MTA tolls: Bridge and tunnel tolls ($2.7B, 13.4%) are classified here as Other, they are user charges on drivers that cross-subsidize transit, not transit fares. Reclassifying tolls as fare-like user revenue would raise the MTA's user-revenue share to about 40%, consistent with the "fares and tolls" framing (39% of the 2024 operating budget) in the NY State Comptroller's revenue-trends report. Congestion pricing revenue is dedicated by statute to the MTA capital program, so it is absent from this operating mix.

TfL: Extraordinary post-COVID government operating support from the Department for Transport ended in 2023/24 (zero in 2024/25), so this chart shows TfL at its most farebox-supported since the pandemic; 2020–2023 would look far more government-dependent. The government share includes a £270.5M local-authority reimbursement for statutory free travel; capital grants (£944.8M) are excluded. TfL's Other slice includes road user charging (ULEZ, Congestion Charge, roughly £1.05B), a policy levy grouped here with commercial income.

MTR: Figures cover Hong Kong recurrent operations only. MTR's famous property-development profit, HK$12.2B in 2024, the engine of its land-value-capture model, sits on top of these figures and is excluded because it is not operating revenue, as are its Mainland China and international subsidiaries. The 0% government share means no direct operating subsidy, but support is implicit: the Hong Kong government grants MTR development rights over station land and is its majority shareholder.

Farebox recovery: Ratios are author-computed from each agency's reports and use non-identical denominators, MTA: fares ÷ total 2025 expenses including debt service; TfL: passenger income ÷ management-accounts operating costs; MTR: Hong Kong fare revenue ÷ Hong Kong transport expenses before depreciation and amortisation (after full depreciation, MTR's Hong Kong transport segment was roughly break-even in 2024). These are not officially published farebox recovery ratios.

Sources: NYC Council Finance Division, Report on the MTA (Fiscal 2026 Preliminary Budget analysis), presenting the MTA 2025 Adopted Budget; Transport for London, Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 2024/25; MTR Corporation, Annual Results 2024; Office of the NY State Comptroller, Report 4-2026.