The effects of federal transit subsidy policy on investment decisions: The case of San Francisco's Geary Corridor

In the United States, federal funding for public transit often accounts for a large proportion of a local agency's budget, especially for capital investments. For this reason, local governments can be expected to plan a portfolio of projects that maximize federal contributions. This study examines the financial effects of federal transit subsidy policy on local transit investment decisions. Data from a System Planning Study for the Geary Corridor in San Francisco are used as an illustration. It is found that federal transit subsidy policy provides financial incentives for local decision-makers to select capital-intensive investment options that may not be efficient or effective. While federal financial incentives are not the only factor influencing local investment decisions, some reform of the current subsidy policy may be necessary to reduce the incentive for ineffective use of public resources.     

Economic costs and environmental impacts of alternative fuel vehicle fleets in local government: An interim assessment of a voluntary ten-year fleet conversion plan

Vehicle fleets are widely viewed by policy makers as attractive first markets for introduction of alternative fuel technologies. Although, it is essential to understand the environmental benefits and economic challenges involved in fleet conversion, the literature provides little understanding of the implementation issues associated with alternative fuel vehicles. This paper examines the cost effectiveness and environmental impact of the conversion of a 180 plus vehicle fleet to alternative fuel vehicle technologies by a public organization at the mid-point of the project implementation. Using multi-year micro data on fuel usage, operational and capital expenditures, mileage and emissions, the paper examines conversion costs and infrastructure investments required, extent of user adoption, and emissions reductions achieved. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for managerial practice in local government fleet agencies and for future research.     

Mass transportation needs and financing in the United States

The U.S. Department of Transportation (1974) recently completed a comprehensive study of mass transportation needs and methods for financing these needs. Using information from the 1974 National Transportation Study, the study determined the level of capital and operating funds that would be required to implement the 1972–90 long-range plans and 1972–80 short-range programs of the states and urbanized areas. It then analyzed various funding mechanisms at state and local levels for financing their portions of these plans and programs.It was found that urban areas, in general, not only plan to stabilize transit fares in the face of rising costs, but also intend to put $ 23.6 billion into capital investments through 1980 and an additional $ 34.6 billion through 1990. Of the total $ 58.2 billion in capital expenditures by 1990, 63% would be expended by the nine largest urbanized areas; 27.8% by the New York area alone. Rail transit and commuter railroad costs would account for 90% of the nine largest urbanized areas.States and localities would be able to carry the financial burden of mass transportation improvements, even if the proposed 1980 programs were implemented in their entirety, given current levels of Federal assistance. However, there would have to be a substantial financial commitment from the states and localities and some hard decisions made by them about public expenditure priorities, fare policies, and taxation levels, and policies to discourage automobile usage. This underscores the need for careful review of their overall plans and programs by state and local officials before making financial commitments.     

A bi-objective maintenance scheduling for power feeding substations in electrified railways

Railway infrastructure is characterized by intensive capital investment, long lifecycle and low return. It is crucial to attain a reasonable system reliability while keeping the recurrent cost manageable throughout the asset lifecycle. Power feeding substations are the key assets on electrified rail lines. As they are subject to various adverse operating conditions, maintenance works of different levels are scheduled to ensure reliability and extend the asset life time if possible. Maintenance scheduling is often regarded as a trade-off between reliability and cost. This study incorporates considerations of different levels of maintenance activities to balance between reliability and cost. In establishing the system reliability model, the contribution of individual component reliability toward the overall system reliability is extracted from the functional relationship among the components. Solution methodologies to this scheduling problem are also proposed here. Evaluation of the scheduling model and the proposed solution is discussed and analyzed through simulation. To cater for the operating conditions in different systems, the impact of weighting factors between reliability and cost on the variations of resulting schedules will be investigated.     

Optimization of emergency crossovers and signals for emergency operations in rail rapid transit

This paper presents a methodology for designing rail transit systems to meet operating requirements when track maintenance or failure cause sections of tracks to be unavailable for service. The methodology can be also used to establish the requirements for the continuity of operations during construction. The main objective of the paper is to develop a tool which performs trade-offs between system costs and level of services during emergencies/construction. Several alternatives, including various signal and control systems, number and types of crossovers and corresponding operating strategies, are developed and evaluated against capital investments. Operating measures and strategies for the selected alternative can be recommended before the design phase is completed, because the designer, by using this methodology, is aware of the capacities attained during emergencies and construction.     

Financing congressional earmarks: Implications for transport policy and planning

This research documents the primary strategies used by the US Congress to fund transportation earmarks from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. It draws on careful analysis of funding bills and primary and secondary sources including government reports, industry and policy newsletters, scholarly articles, and publicly available data on earmarks. It is also informed by interviews with transportation stakeholders involved with earmarks at federal, state, and regional levels. By detailing how Congress pays for earmarks, I show that earmarks do more to redistribute than add to existing transportation resources, and that the intricacy of Congressional funding maneuvers can make earmarks’ fiscal impacts hard to discern. Several implications follow for transportation policy and practice. First, critiques that earmarks increase federal transportation spending are misplaced. While such claims make it easy to discredit national investment in transportation, skepticism is in order when earmarks are invoked to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Second, earmarks’ true costs are related not to increased deficits but rather to opportunity costs incurred when unplanned earmarks replace other investments, particularly projects identified through regional and state planning or competitive selection by an executive agency. Finally, this work suggests productive directions for future earmark reform, such as limiting earmarks to projects in regional or state plans and making explicit for any earmarks in a bill the funding mechanisms that support them. Such steps could lessen the opportunity costs (and administrative inefficiencies) of earmarks, increase transparency in earmarking, and potentially make the practice less objectionable if used to facilitate passage of the long overdue surface transportation authorization bill.     

The role of the passenger train in the United States: A cost comparison of the common carriers

The objective of this article is to establish whether the train has a role to play in the market for intercity passenger travel in the United States. To accomplish this objective, we compare the common carriers on the basis of thier cost effectiveness in moving a given flow of passengers between two points a specified distance apart. The comparisons are based on cost models which highlight the technological differences between the modes and eliminate distortions caused by public policy choices. By varying the size of the passenger flow and trip distance, we develop a notion of each common carrier's ideal operating environment. We find that the cost of the right-of-way is the major factor limiting the range of travel situations in which the train is cost competitive with the other common carriers. More specifically, our results indicate that Amtrak's service in the Northeast Corridor should be continued in the short run. In the long run, the possibility of upgrading Amtrak's service in the Northeast Corridor to high-speed service should be investigated. Outside the Northeast Corridor, we find that high-speed train service should be able to cover its operating costs but not its capital costs.     

High-Speed Rail Operations on an Existing Network: An Assessment Model for China

High-speed rail operations have the potential to reduce the long-term decline in rail passenger travel demand for the medium to long distance inter-urban markets. Such decline has been evident through most of the industrialized countries where air and road transport tend to be the dominant modes. In China, the operations of long distance high-speed rail on fully dedicated track is not very easy to implement, due to the high proportion of passengers who travel between high-speed and conventional railways. An alternative approach would be to allow for mixed operations with trains of various speeds on the same track. This article puts forward a simulation model designed to allow an evaluation of the most efficient distance for high-speed rail operations under mixed train speed scenarios. The model takes into account the main operating parameters such as passenger volumes, train speeds, capital and maintenance costs, train operating costs and energy consumption. The distance of high-speed train running on conventional rail that will yield the most economic benefit can be estimated using the model. The article includes the results of using the model for a specific example. It is concluded that large-scale high-speed trains have the potential to be successfully operated on conventional rail networks.     

The salience of megaregional geographies for inter-metropolitan transportation planning and policy making

Researchers have argued that megaregions are a crucial spatial scale to address infrastructure modernization, growth management, economic development and environmental impacts because processes affecting these domains are highly concentrated within megaregional spaces. This paper evaluates the conceptual issues and policy salience of megaregional planning in the U.S. by analyzing the results of a 2018 survey of 382 designated MPOs. Drawing upon the survey results, we find support for the notion that MPO partnerships operating at the megaregional scale are somewhat widespread and involve MPOs along with other partners, like state DOTs and councils of governments. A subset of common concerns—especially multi-modal freight, major transportation corridors, economic development, intercity rail service, and air quality—appear to motivate megaregional partnerships. MPOs were most likely to engage in megaregion-scale collaborations requiring relatively low levels organizational time and resources versus more substantive collaborative efforts to develop joint plans or coordinated project investments. At the same time, few MPO respondents viewed megaregional scale planning collaborations as a high priority or as highly effective. For the majority of MPOs, it appears likely that the costs of such collaborations currently outweigh prospective benefits. Survey respondents identified increasing staff funding, requiring state DOTs’ statewide plans to address megaregional issues, and facilitating and enabling inter-local agreements for megaregional planning as actions that would enhance the salience and effectiveness of megaregional planning. These actions will likely occur only if planning at this scale is embraced as an important priority by federal and state policy makers.     

Analyzing voter support for California’s local option sales taxes for transportation

Local and regional governments in the U.S. rely increasingly on voter-approved local option sales taxes (LOSTs) to fund transportation capital investments, maintenance, and operations. LOSTs typically present voters with lists of local transportation projects and programs to be funded by a ¼ to 1 percent sales tax increase. Most research on LOSTs are case studies, which make generalizations about LOSTs difficult. We conducted a comprehensive, multi-jurisdictional analysis of LOST measures in California, the U.S. state with the greatest number of LOST measures. We examined 76 LOST measures put to voters between 1976 and 2016 to assess factors associated with voter support. LOSTs in California are enacted by counties, which we examined in addition to smaller intra-county geographies using both regression models and case studies. We tested several explanatory variables for association with voter support including macroeconomic and political context, planned measure expenditures, voter characteristics, and spatial distribution of proposed projects. We found that funding dedicated to public transit and returned to local jurisdictions predicts support at the county level, and that LOSTs that create new taxes—as opposed to extending or renewing existing taxes—are less popular with voters, all else equal. Our analyses of sub-county geographies revealed that political party affiliation is the strongest predictor of local voter support for LOSTs and that voters living adjacent to funded projects tended to be more supportive of LOSTs.

     

Transit funding: Implications of federal aid strategies

Federal funding strategies greatly affect investment in urban transportation facilities in the United States. This analysis concentrates on the implications of varying federal aid matching requirements, structuring aid programs as categorical or block grants, and allo cating funds on a discretionary basis or according to formula. Toward this end the effects of recent federal transit aid arrangements are assessed.Increased federal matching share broadens program participation, especially among smaller cities. However, when offered a choice, communities' preference for more generous federal aid shares is tempered by their election of discretionary grants (e.g., Urban Mass Transportation Administration - UMTA - Section 3) instead of drawing on formula funds (e.g., UMTA Section 5 or highway fund transfers). Formula funds are easier to administer, distributed quite evenly in the UMTA case, and generally more suitable than discretionary funds except where expenditures are large relative to budgets. Categorical aid programs shift local priorities, and thus should be used with cautionOverall, results suggest that one must begin with established transportation objectives against which to evaluate the effectiveness of funding arrangements. In particular, it is critical to make clear the rationale for federal involvement in funding specific programs. Four such federal funding intents are distinguished: compelling national interest, regional development, stimulation of recipient investment in the given program, or financial relief for the aid recipient. Conclusions are drawn as to the desirability of various funding policies according to such program intent.     

Estimating the marginal cost of railway track renewals using corner solution models

Economic theory advocates marginal cost pricing for efficient utilisation of transport infrastructure. A growing body of literature has emerged on the issue of rail marginal infrastructure wear and tear costs, but the majority of the work is focused on costs for infrastructure maintenance. Railway track renewals are a substantial part of an infrastructure manager’s budget, but in disaggregated statistical analyses they cause problems for traditional regression models since there is a piling up of values of the dependent variable at zero. Previous econometric work has sought to circumvent the problem by aggregation in some way. In this paper we instead apply corner solution models to disaggregate (track-section) data, including the zero observations. We derive track renewal cost elasticities with respect to traffic volumes and in turn marginal renewal costs using Swedish railway renewal data over the period 1999–2009. This paper is the first attempt in the literature to apply corner solution models, and in particular the two-part model, to disaggregate renewal cost data in railways. It is also the first paper that we are aware of to report usage elasticities specifically for renewal costs and therefore adds important new evidence to the previous literature where there is a paucity of studies on renewals and considerable uncertainty over the effects of rail traffic on renewal costs. In the Swedish context, we find that the inclusion of marginal track renewal costs in the track access pricing regime, which currently only reflects marginal maintenance costs, would add substantially to the existing track access charge. EU legislation requires that access charges reflect the ‘costs directly incurred as a result of operating the train service’, which should include a marginal renewal cost component. This change would also increase the cost recovery ratio of the Swedish infrastructure manager, thus meeting a policy objective of the national government.     

Transport policy evaluation in metropolitan areas: The role of modelling in decision-making

The adoption of Integrated Urban Models (IUMs) is increasingly being recognized as a tool to support transport policy appraisals in metropolitan areas. In Canada, the ILUTE (Integrated Land Use Transportation Environment) project is an IUM framework currently under development. While model development is undertaken by academics, the implementation of ILUTE is meant to occur within planning organizations thus rendering the success of model application dependent on available resources for modelling and planners’ attitudes towards the role of models. In an attempt to render the ILUTE modelling framework more “policy-sensitive”, a survey was conducted with planners and policy-makers pertaining to the three levels of government (municipal, provincial, and federal) in Canada. The survey collects information with respect to the current evaluation process of transport policy and its associated pitfalls as well as the desired state of policy appraisal and the need for more formal evaluation tools. Results show the presence of numerous challenges working against the proper development, adoption, and refining of models. The most notable of which include a general disbelief in the usefulness of models for decision-making, lack of resources for large-scale modelling exercises, and poor institutional integration among government departments. While local and national planning goals reflect the recent challenges of promoting environmental preservation, reducing social inequities, and improving the quality of life, modelling tools that can assess the impacts of proposed policies on these goals have lagged behind.     

Evaluation,prioritization and selection of transportation investment projects in New York City

Over the last decade, a large number of high capital cost transportation projects have been proposed for the New York City Region. Many have resulted from addressing evolving capacity needs, changes in regional demographics and economics, meeting the improvements necessitated by operating century old subway systems and recognizing the impact of moving freight in a dense region. But the catalyst for bringing all of these projects to the attention of the public and all regional agencies was the tragedy of September 11, 2001. While these projects entail massive investments ($50–$60 billion), little analytical work has been carried out to measure the transportation and economic costs and benefits they entail and to categorize them accordingly. Competition among agencies to secure adequate resources to implement any of the desired projects makes such analysis necessary; yet there still remain political, vested economic interests and agency rivalry barriers to achieving this important planning objective. This paper reports the methodological approach taken by these authors for consistent and transparent project evaluation and then presents results from the ranking and prioritizing methodology. The policy underpinnings and implications of the analysis are discussed in a subsequent paper and thus only briefly touched upon here in the concluding section.     

Exploring active transportation investments and associated benefits for municipal budgets: a scoping review

Municipalities play an important role in the planning and development of communities that support active transportation (AT), which refers to human-powered modes of travel, such as walking and cycling. Municipal-level stakeholders involved in land-use and transportation infrastructure planning consider multiple social, environmental and economic considerations to inform decision-making and investments in AT. Evidence around the fiscal benefits of AT investment for local governments has not been systematically identified. This scoping review sought to explore the existing evidence regarding investments in AT and opportunities for savings on municipal expenditures and revenue generation. In total, 7060 records were located and screened; of which 162 full-text articles were reviewed. Ultimately, 23 articles met our inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The available evidence focuses on potential economic benefits of AT in the areas of tax revenues, property values, consumer spending and employment, all of which are relevant sources of revenue generation in municipal operating budgets. An evidence gap was identified regarding AT infrastructure investments and benefits corresponding to municipal expenditures (e.g. maintenance cost savings). Notably, a large portion of literature was published after 2009, suggesting that municipal-level evidence on the fiscal benefits of AT investments may just be emerging.     

Donor states and donee states: investigating geographic redistribution of the US federal-aid highway program 1974–2008

In 2009, the US government spent more than $42 billion on the federal-aid highway program. Most of this money was raised from motor vehicle taxes, whose proceeds are deposited in the highway trust fund. Federal motor vehicle user taxes flow into the fund and aid expenditures flow out from it to build and maintain highways and other transportation infrastructure. With so much money at stake it should be no surprise that expenditure decisions are the subject of intense political debate. Chief among these debates is the conflict between donor states, whose residents pay more in highway user taxes than the state receives in federal highway aid and donee states, whose residents pay less in highway user taxes than the state receives in highway aid. While this geographic redistribution has been masked recently by infusions of general fund revenue into the trust fund, the debate nevertheless continues. This paper attempts to understand why some states are donors and others are donees by simultaneously testing four hypotheses about the geographic redistribution of federal highway dollars that relate to a state’s highway need, economic condition, level of urbanization, and representation on the key Congressional oversight committees. The analyses show that redistribution does not favor states with larger highway systems, more highway use, or lower median incomes, all of which are different indicators of need. Instead, states that are less urban and better represented on the four key Congressional committees generally benefit from redistribution. These findings indicate that the user tax revenues are not used in places where they are most needed. Thus they provide little empirical support for any compelling policy argument for continued geographic redistribution of federal highway user tax dollars.     

Measuring the performance of intermodal freight terminals

As the interface point between road and rail, intermodal freight terminals (IFTs) are critical elements in the total freight distribution chain. This paper addresses the twin objectives of reducing freight transport costs and improving customer service by putting forward a number of indicators designed to measure the performance of IFTs. Each of the three major performance areas, namely customer service, operational efficiency and terminal productivity are discussed in detail.

A methodology is put forward which enables operating strategies to be evaluated. Computer simulation is used in order to arrive at strategies which reduce operating and capital costs and satisfy customer service requirements. The simulation model outputs include performance measures related to customer service such as mean waiting times required for loading and unloading of containers, as well as productivity measures of terminal operations such as lifting equipment utilisation.     

Data-driven optimization of railway maintenance for track geometry

Railway big data technologies are transforming the existing track inspection and maintenance policy deployed for railroads in North America. This paper develops a data-driven condition-based policy for the inspection and maintenance of track geometry. Both preventive maintenance and spot corrective maintenance are taken into account in the investigation of a 33-month inspection dataset that contains a variety of geometry measurements for every foot of track. First, this study separates the data based on the time interval of the inspection run, calculates the aggregate track quality index (TQI) for each track section, and predicts the track spot geo-defect occurrence probability using random forests. Then, a Markov chain is built to model aggregated track deterioration, and the spot geo-defects are modeled by a Bernoulli process. Finally, a Markov decision process (MDP) is developed for track maintenance decision making, and it is optimized by using a value iteration algorithm. Compared with the existing maintenance policy using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation, the maintenance policy developed in this paper results in an approximately 10% savings in the total maintenance costs for every 1 mile of track.