Additional research led by the Department of Transportation on the effects of capital investment on transit asset management could help the nearly 700 public transit agencies in the U.S. optimize funding and maintain their bus and rail assets, GAO has said.
Several agencies GAO reviewed have developed asset inventories that provide accessible, consistent, and comprehensive information about their assets but most transit agencies face challenges in implementing these leading practices, according to GAO-13-571.
It said for example that several agencies reported challenges collecting data or monitoring or analyzing assets’ condition and performance.
Some agencies can estimate the effect capital investment decisions have on their state-of-good-repair backlog and on-time service to customers, such as the Federal Transit Administration. Two versions of the FTA’s Transit Economic Requirements Model are used to help estimate capital investment needs and recently helped some agencies determine effects on their state-of-good-repair backlog, GAO noted.
It said however that just two transit agencies it visited measured the effects on the condition of certain assets, and that while the FTA has supported transit agencies’ use of leading asset management practices through several initiatives, it could still assist transit agencies by conducting further research that examines effects of capital investments, including those effects on future ridership.
GAO recommended that FTA conduct additional research to help transit agencies measure the effects of capital investments, including future ridership effects, to help agencies optimize limited funding.
