“The People Behind Major Transit Projects,” Eno says, explores the challenges project managers face and identifies the skills, experience, and support they need to succeed. To inform its recommendations and illustrate lessons relevant to agencies nationwide, the report (download below) features case studies of transit projects in varying size, scope, and location.
According to Eno, the report, which builds on insights from the think-tank’s previous research, also describes a wide range of project management resources including conferences, federal offices, and documents, as well as programs offered by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Eno, and the National Transit Institute (NTI). These resources, Eno says, can help transit agencies “adopt a more strategic approach to hiring, training, and retaining project managers. They can also help future project managers chart their career paths.”
The report “provides an insightful look into the challenges faced by the nation’s transit agencies in successfully staffing projects as required to effectively implement infrastructure projects and to be good stewards of taxpayer funds. It is a must read not only for transit property leaders but for anyone who undertakes publicly funded projects,” said former Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Deputy General Manager Robert L. Lund.
Bill Goodrich, former Senior Vice President at MTA Capital Construction said, the report is “a valuable source for information on how to select, develop, and retain critical personnel for lead project manager positions on large transit projects. Whether you work for the public agency, consultant, or contractor, the project manager position is the most critical and challenging position to recruit and retain during the life of a project.”
Additionally, Eno released “Analysis of Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Cost Database,” which assesses the FTA’s capital cost database and provides recommendations for improving its usefulness. The FTA’s database contains cost components of federally funded transit projects over the last 40 years.
Eno worked with NYU’s Marron Institute to analyze the database’s 65 bus rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, heavy rail and trolley projects. The report (download below) highlights the database’s “usefulness, potential, and limitations.” It also includes a set of interactive graphs that summarize information in the database.
Although the database does not have the level of information that would be required to prepare detailed cost estimates, Eno says it can be a valuable tool for preparing ballpark estimates for conceptual projects. “While the database is perhaps most useful during the project development phase, some grantees have used it during construction to compare their projects against the entire database or a subset.”
“We spend billions of public dollars on these projects,” said NYU Marron Institute Program Director Eric Goldwyn. “There should be good, unambiguous accounting so that we can compare and learn from past projects. The FTA Capital Cost Database is an attempt at this. It isn’t perfect, but it is a tool that can help project sponsors baseline projects and understand which components drive costs.”
FTA first published the database in 2010 and is now in its fourth iteration. It uses the following eight standard cost categories: (1) guideway & track elements, (2) stations, stops, terminals, intermodal, (3) support facilities: yards, shops, administrative buildings, (4) sitework and special conditions, (5) systems, (6) right of way, land, existing improvements, (7) vehicles, and (8) professional services. Each of these categories is also broken down in subcategories.
As part of the report, the research team prepared a set of graphs to compare projects. For example, Graph #1 below compares the cost of 27 light rail projects and Graph #2 compares the costs of 15 heavy rail projects. Both graphs separate costs by the eight categories and are shown in inflation-adjusted dollars. An additional set of interactive graphs are available here.
The following graph shows how rail and bus rapid transit projects that include tunnels are significantly more expensive than at-grade transit projects. The x-axis shows the percentage of the line that is built in a tunnel. The y-axis shows the cost per mile.
