Transit Management

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Transit Management posted by member7_php on 2/27/2009

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Abstract/Syllabus

Courseware/Lectures

Test/Tutorials

Transit Management

Fall 2006

Light rail is one mode of transit in the United States. The tracks pictured here are in San Jose, CA. (Image courtesy of lazytom on Flickr.)

Course Highlights

This course features a full set of lecture notes and the assignments from the class.

Course Description

This course discusses management methods of relevance to public transportation systems. Topics include strategic planning management, labor relations, maintenance planning and administration, financing, marketing and fare policy, and management information and decision support systems. The course shows how these general management tasks are dealt with in the transit industry and presents alternative strategies. It also identifies alternative arrangements for service provision, including different ways of involving the private sector in public transportation.

Syllabus

Scope

This course explores management issues and methods relevant to urban public transportation systems. The focus will be on the organizations providing public transport service and will include alternative arrangements for service provision. Topics to be discussed will include privatization and deregulation, strategic planning and management, performance assessment, financing, budgeting, marketing, pricing, labor relations, workforce planning and management, maintenance planning, and management information and decision support systems. Coverage will be of both current transit industry practice and alternative strategies.

Course Requirements

Readings will be assigned for each topic
A term paper will be required of each student with the following submission dates:
- Week #4: Proposal (approximately 1 page)
- Week #5: Presentation and Discussion
- Week #10: Progress Report (approximately 5 pages)
- Week #14: Final Paper and Oral Presentation (15 - 20 minutes)
Two written assignments, due in Weeks #5 and 12

Grading

Final grades will be based 50% on the term project and 50% on the assignments and contributions to class discussions.

Calendar

Course calendar.
WEEK #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
1	Introduction: Transit Industry Status
2-3	Organizational Models
4	Contracting Guest Lecturer: Fred Salvucci, MIT Guest Lecturer: John Attanucci, MIT	Term paper proposal due
5	Term Paper Presentations and Discussions	Assignment 1 out
6	Performance Measurement Guest Lecturer: John Attanucci, MIT
7	Strategic Management and Planning Guest Lecturer: Fred Salvucci, MIT
8	Finance and Budget Guest Lecturer: Richard H. Doyle, Federal Transit Authority	Assignment 1 due
9	Fare Policy and Technology Guest Lecturer: Dan Fleishman, TranSystems	Assignment 2 out
10	Marketing Guest Lecturer: Karla Karash, TranSystems	Term paper progress report due
11	Labor Relations Guest Lecturer: Fred Salvucci, MIT
12	Workforce Planning	Assignment 2 due
13	Safety / Security, Transit Maintenance, and Information Systems Guest Lecturer: Susan Altshuler, MBTA Guest Lecturer: John Attanucci, MIT
14	Term Paper Presentations	Final paper due

Readings

General Readings

Transit Cooperative Research Program Syntheses, Reports, and Research Digests, 1994-present. (Key: R = Report, S = Synthesis, RRD = Research Report Digest, LRD = Legal Research Digest.)
All TCRP publications listed in the table below are available at their Web site after registering for free. Search by Project number.

Transportation Research Record (past 10 years) deals with transit management.

UITP Revue is a quarterly, international journal on transit topics.

Mass Transit is a monthly magazine with good topical coverage.

Passenger Transport is a weekly American Public Transit Association publication.

Fielding, G. J. (Pete). Managing Public Transit Strategically. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1987. ISBN: 1555420680.

Required Readings

Course Readings.
WEEK #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction: Transit Industry Status
2-3	Organizational Models	Rye, T., and N. Wilson. "The Urban Bus Situation in the UK: Recent Developments and a Case Study of Edinburgh." TRAIL Research School, Delft, March 2002. Wilson, N. H. M. "Public Transport in the U.S.A.: A Critical Appraisal and Prospects For Future Industry Restructuring." TRAIL Research School, Delft, March 2002. Gwilliam, K. "Ownership, Organization and Competition Policy: An International Review." Presented at The Fifth International Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport, Leeds, UK, May, 1997.
4	Contracting Guest Lecturer: Fred Salvucci, MIT Guest Lecturer: John Attanucci, MIT	Halvorsen, R., and N. H. M. Wilson. "The Role of Contract Structuring in Contracted Public Transport Performance: Theory and Practice." Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport, Rotorua, New Zealand, July 1995. Blakey, Tara. "Designing Transit Concession Contracts to Deal with Uncertainty." Master of Science in Transportation Thesis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Thesis, 2006.
5	Term Paper Presentations and Discussions
6	Performance Measurement Guest Lecturer: John Attanucci, MIT	"Using Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management." (Project H-28), R-113. Lee, Douglass. "Transit Cost and Performance Measurement." Transport Reviews 9, no. 2 (1989): 147-170. Fielding, G. J. Chapter 3. "The Role of Performance-Based Measures in Allocating Funding for Transit Operations." (Project SG-04), S-06, Summary and Chapters 1-4. A Summary of TCRP Report 88: "A Guidebook for Developing a Transit Performance-Measurement System." (Project G-6), R-88.
7	Strategic Management and Planning Guest Lecturer: Fred Salvucci, MIT	"Support for Fundamental Change in Public Transportation" (Project J-08B), RRD-55. "Customer-Focused Transit." (Project J-7, SB7), S-45, Summary and Chapters 1-3.
8	Finance and Budget Guest Lecturer: Richard H. Doyle, Federal Transit Authority	"Innovative Financing Techniques for Transit Agencies." (Project 3-01), LRD13.
9	Fare Policy and Technology Guest Lecturer: Dan Fleishman, TranSystems	"Fare Policies, Structures, and Technologies." (Project A-01), R-10. Yi, Hong. "Transition to Smart Card Technology: How Transit Operators Can Encourage the Take-Up of Smart Card Technology." Master of Science in Transportation Thesis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Thesis, 2006.
10	Marketing Guest Lecturer: Karla Karash, TranSystems	"A Handbook of Proven Marketing Strategies for Public Transit." (Project B-13), R-50, Introductory Chapter. TCRP Web Document 8, "Marketing Transit Services to Business." Executive Summary. "A Handbook: Integrating Market Research into Transit Management." (Project B-02), R-37.
11	Labor Relations Guest Lecturer: Fred Salvucci, MIT	"A Challenged Employment System: Hiring, Training, Performance Evaluation, and Retention of Bus Operators." (Project J-7), S-40, Summary and Chapters 1, 4, 5, and 6. "Practices in Assuring Employee Availability." (Project SF-06), S-33, Summary and Chapters 1 - 2. "Total Quality Management in Public Transportation." (Project F-03), RRD-03. "The Quality Journey: A TQM Roadmap for Public Transportation." (Project F-03), R-8. Harsh, W., Jr. "Innovative Labor-Management Practices." TCRP Report, 1995.
12	Workforce Planning	Koutsopoulos, H. N., and N. H. M. Wilson. "Operator Workforce Planning in the Transit Industry." Transportation Research 21A (1987): 127-138. Shiftan, Y., and N. H. M. Wilson. "Absence, Overtime, and Reliability Relationships in Transit Workforce Planning." Transportation Research Record 1402 (1993): 98-106.
13	Safety / Security, Transit Maintenance, and Information Systems Guest Lecturer: Susan Altshuler, MBTA Guest Lecturer: John Attanucci, MIT	"Light Rail Service: Vehicular and Pedestrian Safety." (Project A-13), RRD-34, Chapters 1-3. "Monitoring Bus Maintenance Performance." (Project SF-04), S-22, Chapters 1-5. "Leveraging Information for Better Transit Maintenance." (Project E-01), RRD-13. "Information Technology Update for Transit." (Project SG-08), S-35, Summary and Chapters 1-2.
14	Term Paper Presentations

Webliography:

Related Resources

To Access On-line TCRP Publications

This is the complete list of TCRP report headings:

Project Reports

Final reports on research findings, issued at the conclusion of Cooperative Research Program projects, in a format specifically designed for managers and practitioners.

National Cooperative Highway Research Program
Transit Cooperative Research Program

Web Documents

The National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) have begun publishing "Web documents" to either augment or replace traditional hard-copy publication.

National Cooperative Highway Research Program
Transit Cooperative Research Program

Synthesis Reports

Reports of studies on current practice in the field of highway transportation and transit.

National Cooperative Highway Research Program
Transit Cooperative Research Program

Research Results Digest

Preliminary reports to provide early awareness of research results emanating from Cooperative Research Program projects.

National Cooperative Highway Research Program
Transit Cooperative Research Program

Legal Research Digest

Preliminary reports to provide early awareness and encourage application of research results emanating from the continuing NCHRP Project, Legal Problems Arising Out of Highway Programs, and the continuing TCRP Project, Legal Aspects of Transit and Intermodal Transportation Programs.

National Cooperative Highway Research Program
Transit Cooperative Research Program

CTPP Statistics

Census Transportation Planning Package 2000

The Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) is a set of special tabulations from the decennial census designed for transportation planners. CTPP contains tabulations by place of residence, place of work, and for flows between home and work.

CTPP 2000 is a cooperative effort sponsored by the State Departments of Transportation under a pooled funding arrangement with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). More information about CTPP is available at Census Data for Transportation Planning.