State of the System

Service Calls: Six Largest Bay Area Transit Operators,
FY 2003-04 — 2007-08

Transit Asset Age as a Percentage of Useful Life, 2008

Region Falling Behind in Replacement of Aging Transit Systems

Due to lack of funding, many transit assets – such as vehicles, tracks, stations and maintenance facilities – remain in service long after they should be replaced. The result is higher costs for maintenance and repairs, and potentially reduced performance and reliability.

In order to compare asset types with a wide range of useful lives, ranging from four years for a small paratransit van to 30 years for a rail car, age is expressed as a percentage of the useful life of the asset. For example, an asset at 0 percent of its useful life is brand new; at 100 percent it is due for replacement; and at 200 percent it has been in service twice as long as expected. If all assets were replaced on schedule, over time the average age of all assets would be 50 percent of useful life, the performance target established in MTC’s long-range Transportation 2035 Plan.

In 2008, the average age of all assets was 74 percent of useful life, signifying that asset replacement is occurring well behind schedule. But average age does vary by type of asset. Regional funding policy gives first priority to replacement of revenue vehicles. As a result, the average age of buses is close to the 50 percent target. The higher age for rail cars (71 percent) reflects the fact that the BART and Caltrain vehicle fleets are
due for replacement over the next several years. And, as can be seen in the bar graph, track and maintenance facilities are often kept in service well beyond their replacement due dates. Because of this, these facilities are likely to require extensive – and expensive – maintenance and rehabilitation.

Note on Data Collection Techniques:
Transit Service Calls

A service call occurs any time transit service is disrupted because a transit vehicle cannot complete a scheduled trip or cannot start the next scheduled trip. Transit operators report total service calls to the Federal Transit Administration as part of the National Transit Database. Operators also report the miles of service provided annually (annual revenue service miles) as part of the National Transit Database. MTC uses these data to calculate the total number of service calls per million miles of service provided by the seven largest bus and rail operators. National Transit Database data and reports may be found at: http://www.ntdprogram.gov/ntdprogram/

MTC summarizes transit ridership and other operating statistics for Bay Area operators in its annual report, Statistical Summary of Bay Area Transit Operators, which covers a rolling five-year period and may be viewed at: www.mtc.ca.gov/library/statsum/statsum.htm

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