Use of Federal Assistance for Private Operator Capital Cost in UMTA's (Urban Mass Transportation Administration's) Entrepreneurial Services Challenge Grant Program

摘要

Dynamic changes in travel patterns stepped up the need for alternative transit service. The explosive growth of employment in the suburbs and the increasing number of city-to-suburb and inter-suburban trips have created 'new markets' that require more flexible and smaller-scale approaches than those provided by large centralized transit systems. UMTA has developed a program to respond to these 'new market' needs--The Entrepreneurial Services Challenge Grant Program (ESCGP). It features start-up capital costs support to entrepreneurs and supports the cost of a provider's own equipment purchase or lease (instead of UMTA buying vehicles and leasing or donating them to a provider). The idea behind the ESCGP is to help start new private transit services that can eventually operate without public subsidy. The program is directed toward two groups: equipment lessors and the entrepreneurial transit service providers. The report presents the ESCGP in detail and illustrates its application through case studies.