Opportunities for Improving the Effectiveness of Rapid Transit Grants

Gao ID: RED-76-75 March 10, 1976

The Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) has awarded grants for new rapid transit system equipment without having sufficient information on the reliability of that equipment. Because UMTA provides limited direction to potential grantees during its grant approval process, UMTA has approved a grant of $142 million for new cars for New York's rapid transit system without sufficient information on the reliability of that equipment, and has also approved the inclusion of automatic train control equipment not planned for in the immediate future.

At the time of the grant approval, UMTA had not required grantees to provide evidence of the reliability of equipment or components to be purchased with Federal funds. Without such evidence, the agency had no information on the extent of the risk taken in funding new equipment. The agency requested the purchase of equipment not planned for immediate use on railcars without justifying the need for this equipment. Projects often involve building new railcars or components rather than resolving specific hardware problems. The agency needs to develop an information collection and dissemination system on transit problems and to use the data as a basis for deciding which problems could and should be addressed under the Federal mass transit research and development program.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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