"TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 157: State of Good Repair: Prioritizing the Rehabilitation and Replacement of Existing Capital Assets and Evaluating the Implications for Transit presents a framework that builds upon a set of fundamental concepts and provides a basic set of steps for transit agencies to follow when evaluating and prioritizing capital asset rehabilitation and replacement investments. In addition to the printed report, an analytical approach and set of spreadsheet tools were developed to support the framework. These tools address how to evaluate rehabilitation and replacement actions for specific types of transit assets, and how to prioritize candidate rehabilitation and replacement actions."--Publisher's description.

Assesses the level of investment required to bring all of our nation¿s public transportation (transit) systems into a state of good repair. While the seven agencies included in the 2009 Rail Modernization Study are responsible for a majority of the nation¿s transit assets, the Study¿s findings emphasize the need for a more comprehensive understanding of transit reinvestment needs. This 2010 National State of Good Repair Assessment evaluates the level of investment required to bring all U.S. transit assets to a state of good repair. The current national SGR backlog is about $77.7 billion. An annual average of $14.4 billion in normal replacement expenditures would be required to keep that backlog from getting larger. Charts and tables.

Although transit service is generally safe, recent high-profile accidents on several large rail transit systems notably the June 2009 collision in Washington, D.C., that resulted in nine fatalities and 52 injuries have raised concerns. The Fed. Transit Admin. (FTA) oversees state agencies that directly oversee rail transit agencies' safety practices. FTA also provides assistance to transit agencies, such as funding and training, to enhance safety. This report determined: (1) the challenges the largest rail transit systems face in ensuring safety; and (2) the extent to which assistance provided by FTA addresses these challenges. The author visited eight large rail transit systems and their respective state oversight agencies. Illus. This is a print on demand report.