The occurrence of rail defects, broken rails, and broken rail derailments is consistent with the rate of development found in other studies that look at larger populations of rail defects. Likewise, the larger and more heavily used transit systems develop increased levels of defects, which is again consistent with what is seen in the railroad industry at large. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research...

Third rail systems provide traction power to electrified rail systems in many parts of the world, including the United States, and encounter problems such as failures that need to be investigated and remediated. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 150: Third Rail Insulator Failures: Current State of the Practice  documents the present practices and lessons learned, c...

Public transit buses face many operational challenges—especially when operating on the same streets and roads as other vehicles. Buses can be slowed by traffic congestion and get repeatedly caught at traffic lights, slowing buses down and delaying both passengers on board and passengers waiting at stops farther along the route. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 149: Tra...

Five different business models for mobile fare payment apps are examined, as the world of apps used by transit agencies in the United States and Canada continues to steadily grow. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 148: Business Models for Mobile Fare Apps documents current practices and experiences of transit agencies that offer mobile fare payment applications to trans...

Women have traditionally been underrepresented within the transit workforce. However, the percentage of women within transit agencies appears to be increasing, and many transit agencies report that the percentage of women advancing into management and leadership positions has also been increasing over the past 5 years. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 147: Attracting, ...

Sixty percent of the transit-industry practitioners surveyed rate their transit agency’s efforts to address their major security challenges as somewhat or very successful. However, only 25 percent say they have implemented any security-risk-reduction program that they consider to be exceptional or exemplary. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 146: Transit Security Prepar...

Transit agencies around the country are facing the challenges of reducing transit bus collisions and the injuries, fatalities, and liability expenses associated with these collisions. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 145: Current Practices in the Use of Onboard Technologies to Avoid Transit Bus Incidents and Accidents documents the current practices in the use of the v...

Nearly all transit agencies are seeing potential benefits to multimodal payment convergence. However, many agencies find that implementing necessary upgrades is cost-prohibitive, which is the biggest barrier to full adoption. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 144: Multimodal Fare Payment Integration documents current practices and experiences of transit agencies dealing...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 143: Managing the Transit Scheduling Workforce examines how transit agencies are recruiting, training, developing, and retaining schedulers. In the case where transit agencies use third parties to create schedules, the report also shows how transit systems manage those third parties. The report is designed to assist transit agencies in ma...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 142: Implementing the U.S. DOT Reasonable Modification Rule provides an overview of the current state of practice regarding transit systems implementation of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) regulation 49 C.F.R Part 37. The report describes the experiences of agencies as they ma...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 141: Microtransit or General Public Demand–Response Transit Services: State of the Practice provides an overview of the current state of the practice of transit systems that are directly providing general public demand–response or microtransit with their own vehicles and personnel or using a traditional contractor. The report presents a l...

TCRP Synthesis 140: Comprehensive Bus Network Redesigns provides an overview of the current state of practice regarding comprehensive bus network redesign. The study examines practices among agencies of different sizes, geographic locations, and modes. The report captures the many components that are needed to successfully plan and implement a redesign and carefully considers the goals and objecti...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 139: Transit Service Evaluation Standards provides an overview of the purpose, use, and application of performance measures, service evaluation standards, and data collection methods at North American transit agencies. The report addresses the service evaluation process, from the selection of appropriate metrics through development of ser...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 138: Public Transit Rider Origin–Destination Survey Methods and Technologies captures the state of the practice among agencies of different sizes, geographic locations, and modes and evaluates the opportunities for and challenges of conducting surveys in an era of emerging technologies. The report presents the reality and complexity of co...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) and Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) have released a joint report, ACRP Synthesis 91 / TCRP Synthesis 137: Microgrids and Their Application for Airports and Public Transit. The report describes microgrids that airports and public transit agencies can implement to increase resilience of their critical infrastructure. A microgrid is descri...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 136: Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service documents the state of the practice in contracting bus services. Today many transit agencies contract out their fixed-route bus transit services; however, there is not enough research that focuses on the procurement and oversight process of these contracts. This synthesis will assist transi...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 135: ADA Paratransit Service Models provides information about current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant paratransit service models and the underlying reasons why specific transit agencies have opted to keep or change their service model. ADA paratransit demand continues to grow while resources are dwindling. For that reason...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 134: Customer-Focused Service Guarantees and Transparency Practices documents the nature and prevalence of customer-focused practices among transit providers in North America and supplements the discussion by including information from European transit providers. A growing number of North American public transit agencies have adopted serv...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 133: Administration of ADA Paratransit Eligibility Appeal Programs identifies ADA eligibility appeal processes and documents current practices of transit systems. ADA paratransit eligibility appeal programs allow appellants the opportunity to present new information not provided or available during the initial eligibility decision that ma...

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 132: Public Transit and Bikesharing explores cooperative transit and bikesharing relationships and documents the experiences of transit systems with bikesharing as a mode. An increasing number of transit agencies have developed cooperative arrangements with bikesharing programs to strengthen the relationship between the modes. The impleme...