The Need for Greater Federal Investment in Metropolitan Rail

Regional Plan Association (RPA) developed this report for the Metropolitan Rail Discussion Group (MRDG), an alliance of 10 of the largest transit agencies in the United States, which own and operate the vast majority of the nation’s metropolitan rail network. The report highlights the critical need for federal investment in the MRDG transit systems’ capital infrastructure to address and reverse the expanding state of good repair backlog and growing normal replacement needs.

The report reaches a number of important conclusions:

• MRDG agencies face two conflicting trends: (i) growth of ridership on their systems driven by population growth in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, along with aging Baby Boomers, who are increasingly transit dependent, and working-age Millennials, who use transit with great frequency, and (ii) severe deterioration of their physical assets due to an inadequate investment over the years. These trends are not sustainable over the long run.
• MRDG agencies face different and more complex challenges than the rest of the U.S. transit industry. MRDG systems carry 60% of the nation’s transit trips and are growing twice as fast as other transit systems around the country, yet they have been unable to expand service at the same rate as others due to the extremely high capital costs needed to maintain their legacy transit infrastructure.
• The collective state of good repair backlog for the MRDG agencies is $102 billion (2015$) and the annual normal replacement need is $13 billion (2015$).1 These costs are driven largely by the capital-intensive needs of their rail systems. Unfortunately, this backlog has grown over the past decade and all of the agencies have facilities beyond their useful lives. In fact, in 2013, the MRDG agencies were only able to invest 20% of the monies needed to achieve and maintain a state of good repair on their transit systems over a six-year time horizon.
• This backlog is a crisis for the American economy as the MRDG transit systems drive the economic growth of the metropolitan areas they support, which create more than a quarter of U.S. GDP. The MRDG regions are the centers of innovation in America and their success or failure will significantly impact the fate of the entire country.
• If current trends continue and investment in the MRDG transit systems remains inadequate, the overall mobility within these regions will be greatly reduced and their viability as engines of national economic growth will be challenged as other world centers become more attractive to 1 Excludes NJ Transit. business and the innovation economy. Conversely, substantial and sustained investment in the MRDG systems will promote national and regional economic growth as well as providing a number of social, environmental and fiscal benefits.
• Finally, surveys throughout the country have shown that the public views transit investment very favorably

Robust funding levels by the federal government would enable the MRDG agencies to achieve and maintain a state of good repair over the next six to ten years and get back onto the path to fiscal sustainability. Alternatively, inadequate levels of federal funding for transit state of good repair needs has significant consequences in terms of achieving our national transportation, economic development and sustainability goals.

A long-term commitment to invest in America’s metropolitan rail systems to bring them into a state of good repair and sustain this level is needed in the next federal surface transportation bill.