The Federal Transit Administration has introduced the transit asset management (TAM) rule to maintain transit fleets, keeping assets in fleets longer and be more affective.
“TAM is a business model that prioritizes funding based on the condition of transit assets to achieve or maintain transit networks in a state of good repair (SGR). In 2015, U.S. DOT estimated that 40 percent of buses and 23 percent of rail transit assets were in marginal or poor condition, with a backlog of $90 billion in deferred maintenance,” explained FTA Acting Administrator K. Jane Williams. “In July 2016, FTA issued a final rule requiring transit agencies to maintain — and document — minimum TAM standards. The TAM rule aims to address the SGR backlog by requiring transit providers to create TAM plans that help them prioritize maintenance. Implementing a TAM system requires transit providers to collect and use asset condition data, set targets, and develop strategies to prioritize investments to meet their goals.”
The response to the mandate has brought agencies together to communicate with each other.
“Many transit agencies already recognize that an asset management plan is a best practice for any organization, by calling for goal-setting and setting targets to reach those goals. FTA has provided extensive information and technical support to transit agencies since the law was enacted in 2012, and for many years before that. Agencies also are learning from one another. More than a dozen agencies have contributed case studies to FTA’s peer library. FTA also hosts an annual TAM roundtable and regularly provides updates to grantees at industry meetings,” said Williams. “Most smaller agencies already have the basics of their TAM plans underway, and transit agencies have reported their vehicle inventories to the NTD for many years. Those reports can be the start of asset inventories for the TAM plans.”
Setting in place a working philosophy
One such agency that has focused on keeping asset management in the forefront of its program is St. Louis. In 2016 the Bi-State Development (Metro Transit) was recognized by the FTA as a model for transit asset management. One of the main highlights that was focused on the Metro’s bus maintenance program.
Darren Curry, Metro Transit, chief mechanical officer explained how Metro began restructuring its program. “We introduced that maintenance program back in 2002. In 2002 we sat out on changing our traditional maintenance where you set out to find things that are broken and or wait for something to fail to a more proactive predictive maintenance program. We mapped out the entire lifecycle of a vehicle including the kinds of failures and we pulled component replacement throughout the lifecycle of the vehicle.”
Curry went on to say that Metro continues to do that to this day.
“That philosophy, which started with the bus, we pushed into our on-demand and LRV maintenance had a similar program. Basically all of our rolling stock is under that program. Around 2006 and 2007 we used that same philosophy and started pushing that out,” said Curry. “We were well on a long way without the mandate. I believe that we were recognized because we were already doing that. When the mandate came out and there was more guidance on what the FTA was looking at, we were pretty much aligned with it.”
Meeting the mandate
“To comply with the TAM rule, agencies will develop a TAM plan and submit two reports to the National Transit Database (NTD) annually. TAM plans include an asset inventory, asset condition assessments and a prioritized list of investments to improve the state of good repair of their capital assets,” said Williams.
Different agency sizes clearly have to implement different TAM processes.
“All transit providers, regardless of size, will develop TAM plans. However, small providers have fewer requirements and most may participate in a group plan through their state department of transportation,” said Williams. “FTA offers technical assistance to help agencies implement TAM through a comprehensive website that includes FAQs, peer success stories, guidebooks, templates, checklists, archived webinars, and a quarterly newsletter.”
For Metro they’re continuing how they’ve worked in the past and build upon that.
“We’re on track. What it did cause for us is we focused on the bigger assets — obviously the railcars and the facilities — although we had already adopted the philosophy of identifying the asset, mapping out the intended life for that asset and developing a predictive maintenance program to get that asset to the end of its intended life,” said Curry. “Now we’re pushing that all the way down to all assets. For us it’s not a really big hurdle, the processes and the philosophies were already there so we’re just adding to what we had in place.”
Benefits of TAM
Implementing a successful program for TAM can benefit agencies in numerous ways, including the productivity of the agencies both assets and their man-hours.
“Well-developed asset management systems will optimize capital investment and inform maintenance decisions. Studies have shown that TAM can lower maintenance costs over time,” Williams explained. “TAM can also provide safety benefits. We encourage you to reach out to transit agencies to learn about their successes and challenges in developing TAM plans.”
Curry said that Metro saw a direct correlation.
“What it did for us is we reduced our whole operating and maintenance costs by about 50 percent. Most of it was the labor savings because it didn’t adhere to the old programs. With our parts there were some savings there, in the sense that we were able to identify where it would failure and prevent a catastrophic failure,” Curry explained. Replacing a part before it reaches the point of a catastrophic failure means that Metro can target and replace it without needing to get to the point where the asset needs to be completely removed from service to have a much larger maintenance servicing.
This philosophy for Metro includes mapping out lifecycles before the fleet even arrives.
“There is something that is key. It truly begins with your purchasing of the capital asset. One things you don’t want to do it buy a lot of the same assets at the same time. The problem is they all require maintenance at the same time. What we did was we acquired capital assets so we were able to balance our maintenance efforts,” explained Curry. “We’ve been able to balance our capital cost and our operating cost. That was really our goal initially, getting away from the reach and value so to speak so we could forecast out into the future. We always maintain a maintenance program into the future, so we know how many vehicles we’ll need in the future. We already know before the vehicle arrives what the lifecycle cost will be.”
Metro saw that their total lifecycle cost was reduced. They also were able to lower operating costs and plan component replacements earlier on in the assets life, keeping vehicles in their fleet longer. Curry said that speaks to the sustainability of their program. They replace fleets at 1/15 at a time. Without bringing in a large quantity of a certain vehicle at the same time, Metro can replace the fleets in a staggered fashion.
“This wouldn’t be possible without having support from the top, our board donations and Ray Friem, all the way down to the people that are actually preforming the maintenance,” said Curry. “Today we continue to adjust and finalize our plan. That is part of our culture.”
