It's a sad commentary on the state of public transit in the USA that a system which (using its most optimistic projections) hopes to achieve a 21% farebox return by 2021[0] is "fairly impressive"... or, if you count capital expenditures (like the private sector has to), less than 5% (meaning 95% subsidized). But that's a hell of a lot better than VTA here in Silicon Valley.

[0] http://www.rtd-denver.com/documents/financialreports/strateg...