Synthesis of Information Related to Transit Practices. Topic SG-20. Performance Metrics in Third Party Contracts for Bus Operations and Maintenance

Transit agencies typically utilize three basic models to provide bus transit services to the public. The models are: (1) Full inhouse Operations and Maintenance (O&M) by the transit agency. (2) Fully contracted O&M by a third party. (3) Hybrid, where certain routes O&M are contracted out and the remainder are run inhouse. An understanding of the service models is clearly relevant for the potential to maximize operational efficiencies and manage costs. For example, rural transit agencies have an interest to fully contract O&M to a third party for the lower fixed cost (Ng et al., 2012). However, there is higher-variability in the quality and costs. Further, it is more difficult to measure quality and efficiency.  Medium size and larger urban systems have different interests and challenges when considering the operations and maintenance of their bus transit services. The synthesis will document current practices and metrics used to contract out bus operations and maintenance in North America. It will look at all situations where O&M  services are contracted out (i.e. the entire network is contracted out or divisions or sections of the network are contracted out). The synthesis will document the reasons for outsourcing and the metrics used by agencies for evaluating whether to self-operate or contract out bus operations and maintenance in North America.  In addition, the synthesis will ascertain how agencies are holding their third party providers accountable against contractual terms as well as methodologies that agencies use to monitor and oversee contractors.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5177

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $45000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project J-07, Topic SG-20

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Transit Cooperative Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC    20001

  Federal Transit Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Garcia-Colberg, Mariela

• Performing Organizations:

  Texas A&M Transportation Institute

  Texas A&M University System
  3135 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3135
• Principal Investigators:

  Walk, Michael

• Start Date: 20211116
• Expected Completion Date: 20230612
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus transit operations; Contract administration; Contracting out; Metrics (Quantitative assessment); Performance measurement; State of the practice; Vehicle maintenance
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Maintenance and Preservation; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01772932
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project J-07, Topic SG-20
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: May 25 2021 10:52PM