Meeting the transportation needs of rural America : hearing before the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, first session, June 24, 2015.

This report presents results of research conducted under Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Project B-21, "Effective Approaches to Meeting Rural Intercity Bus Transportation Needs." The project identified strategies for initiating, preserving, and enhancing effective rural intercity bus transportation. To identify recent projects and to identify barriers or issues affecting implementation, the research effort included surveys of state rural transit program managers, state rail program managers, and intercity bus carriers. The report includes three parts. Part I contains a review of recent developments affecting the intercity bus industry, an overview of potential funding sources, and a review of barriers to implementation of rural intercity projects. Part II provides strategies for rural intercity service improvements, including methods of identifying intercity carriers and services, planning, program development, operating assistance, capital assistance, marketing assistance, and combining approaches. Each strategy is described, and implementation examples are presented. Part III presents 50 project descriptions based on additional survey interviews with project contacts.

This report was developed by participants at the National Conference on Reconnecting Rural America, held in Omaha, Nebraska, on August 22-24, 1988. This conference represented the culmination of a joint, 18-month effort of a wide range of participating organizations to address the mobility needs of rural America. After a review of changing rural structural trends and the transition occurring in the transportation industry, the Conference focused on the nine components of a national strategy which emerged from the regional symposia. To examine service realities facing rural areas, the Conference included a discussion of an isolated rural area in danger of losing its intercity bus service. Discussion culminated in the development of Recommendations for a National Strategy on Reconnecting Rural America.