Abstract: Objective: Urban rail transit projects involve substantial investment and high operation cost. Relying solely on ticket revenue is often insufficient to break even. However, urban rail transit systems have strong positive externalities and can achieve sustainable development through methods such as value capture. To enhance the profitability of urban rail transit companies in the development stage and explore paths for sustainable development, it is necessary to investigate and analyze the operating revenue of typical urban rail transit companies both in China and abroad since 2016. Method: From the diversification of business operation and the profit characteristics of rail transit companies based on their basic operation conditions, main and auxiliary business revenue, the profitability of various business segments under the impact of COVID19 pandemic is analyzed, and the sustainable revenue data of companies is compared with their revenue from 2011 to 2015. Result & Conclusion: With the increasing years of operation, depreciation and amortization costs for metro systems become higher, making it more challenging for metro operation to achieve profitability. It is recommended to diversify business segments as soon as possible. Some urban rail transit companies have become industry benchmarks after nearly a decade of development, the government and society should have confidence in their profitability. Supportive policies should be implemented to further promote commercialization in urban rail transit operations. Diversified business models help enhancing the resilience of urban rail transit companies. During the pandemic, both metro systems in China and abroad experienced a sharp decline in revenue from their main business segment, resulting in a significant decrease in gross profit margins. However, companies that have successfully diversified their business models can maintain overall profitability.