Guidance for Calculating the Return on Investment in Transit State of Good Repair

Transit state of good repair (SGR) is a critical area within the U.S. transit industry. All transit agencies, large or small, regardless of region of the country or modes operated, face challenges in maintaining their physical assets in good repair, and many are in a situation where the funds available for rehabilitating and replacing existing capital assets are insufficient for achieving SGR.

The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 206: Guidance for Calculating the Return on Investment in Transit State of Good Repair addresses transit agency, user, and social costs and benefits of SGR investments. The report presents an analysis methodology that utilizes and builds upon previous research performed through the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) presented in TCRP Reports 157 and 198. The guidance (presented in Chapter 3) walks through the steps for calculating the ROI for a potential investment or set of investments.

A key product of the research is a spreadsheet tool intended for transit agency use. It is discussed in Chapter 4.