INTERNATIONAL MASS TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM

摘要

The Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) International Mass Transportation Program (IMTP) was created by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) to increase the global competitiveness of the United States transit industry. With this statutory objective in mine the IMTP provides tools and opportunities to inform and educate the transportation industry by improving access to international transportation data bases, and by creating a two-way flow of information and technology between the United States and other countries. Cooperative agreements developed by the IMTP have set a framework for information sharing with countries such as France, Germany, Brazil, and Japan. As one example of such information sharing, Acting Administrator Nuria I. Fernandez led a delegation to Berlin in March, 2000 to study approaches to track sharing between light rail and heavy rail vehicles in order to implement similar arrangements at facilities in the United States. This mission fostered FTA and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issuance of the "Joint Statement of Agency Policy Concerning Use of Tracks of the General Railroad System by Conventional Railroad and Light Rail Transit Systems". In the future, IMTP will seek to form even more strategic alliances and partnerships with both public and non-profit organizations such as the World Bank, the Transit Cooperative Research Program and the Business Council for International understanding. These partnerships will allow the FTA to leverage its resources and efforts to foster economic growth and trade opportunities, as well as promote the deployment of environmentally friendly technology to the international transport sector.