Transit Asset Management: Improvements Needed to Meet Workload

While Transit has been a leading agency in maintaining its facilities, it must make changes to address increasing maintenance workload, as well as improve transparency and accountability of the TAMP projects. Transit has effectively assessed building conditions and budgeted funds for maintenance activities; however, there are barriers in terms of project management, IT systems, reporting, and planning. Transit does not have a consistent record of completing planned asset maintenance work and will likely miss its 2015 target. In addition, Transit’s practice of using one master project to plan and report on TAMP subprojects limits information available to decision-makers and could lead to excessive budgeting.

We make recommendations to improve the execution and oversight of Transit’s capital asset maintenance projects. We recommend that Transit develop a plan to improve project performance, transparent ways of structuring projects and subprojects, and a robust strategic plan for its maintenance needs.

Transit has over $2 billion in buildings and facilities to support service delivery, including bus bases, park and rides, and vehicle maintenance and operations facilities. Transit manages their upkeep largely through the Transit Asset Management Program (TAMP). Transit has spent about $12 million annually on the maintenance of its facilities, but estimates that expenditures will need to increase by 50%, to more than $18 million annually for the next five years to keep its facilities in a state of good repair. If Transit is unable to keep its facilities in a state of good repair, it could create a large backlog of necessary maintenance work, leading to tens of millions of dollars in increased maintenance costs and eventually a negative impact on transit services.