Testimony of
William W. Millar, President
American Public Transportation Association
submitted to the
Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Federal Public Transportation Investment for FY 2008
*******
April 30, 2007
(Download In Adobe PDF Format)
INTRODUCTION
Madam Chairman and members of the subcommittee, on behalf of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), we thank you for this opportunity to submit written testimony on the need for and benefits of investment in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) programs for Fiscal Year (FY) 2008.
The FY 2008 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill is an opportunity to advance national goals and objectives through increased investment in our surface transportation infrastructure, particularly public transportation. For that reason, we strongly urge Congress to fund the federal transit program at no less than the $9.731 billion level authorized in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act - A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU, P.L. 109-59).
In 2006, Americans took 10.1 billion trips on public transportation. Let me put the 10.1 billion number in perspective. This is more than the number of Americans who attended NFL games, MLB games, NBA games, NHL games, NASCAR races, went to the movies, and ate a hamburger from McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's combined. Transit ridership growth of 30 percent since 1995 is outpacing both the growth of our population - 12 percent - and the growth in the use of the nation's highways - 24 percent - since then. Each weekday, 34 million trips are made on public transportation in our nation. All across America, public transportation provides choice, freedom and opportunity.
Expanding access to public transportation is more important than ever. Transit plays a number of important roles. It reduces congestion and it provides mobility options. Its use decreases our dependence on foreign oil and improves air quality. Increasing access to public transportation is clearly needed to create a stable, healthy and strong America. Forty years from now when America's population will exceed 400 million, we will be glad we had the foresight to discuss, plan and invest in the future of public transportation today. As we look to the future, we know there is no possible way that our roads can accommodate all the anticipated growth on their own. Transit is, and has to be, part of the solution.
FISCAL YEAR 2008 GOALS
APTA recognizes the need to invest limited federal resources wisely, and we believe that investment in public transportation is an astute use of limited resources. To realize all of the benefits of public transportation, we urge Congress to follow the investment schedule in SAFETEA-LU. The law authorizes $9.731 billion for the federal transit program in FY 2008, including $7.766 billion in contract authority from the Mass Transit Account (MTA) of the Highway Trust Fund and $1.965 billion in new budget authority general fund spending.
We urge Congress to fund the federal transit program at the authorized level so that communities across the nation, utilizing state and local resources in tandem with federal funds, can begin to address the overwhelming need both to preserve the existing transit infrastructure and to expand and improve that infrastructure in growing communities and those without good transit service.
A new survey prepared by Cambridge Systematics as part of the Transit Cooperative Research Program finds that annual transit capital needs are greater than $45 billion a year. State and local governments cannot meet the expanding capital need requirements of public transportation while also providing for transit operating expenses. To help meet these needs, APTA believes that the federal government should invest no less in public transportation than the $9.731 billion level that was authorized and guaranteed by SAFETEA-LU.
PRESIDENT'S BUDGET PROPOSAL
The Administration's FY 2008 budget proposal would cut $309 million from the level authorized and guaranteed by the Congress for FY 2008 in SAFETEA-LU. The Administration's budget cuts some $300 million in investments in rail and other fixed guideway transit projects in the New Starts and Small Starts program that were authorized by Congress under SAFETEA-LU. This is a failure to fund nearly 18 percent of the investment authorized to build projects which are crucial to attracting new riders.
As this committee knows, there is overwhelming demand for New Starts and Small Starts projects, and SAFETEA-LU authorized 387 such projects. New fixed guideway projects are an important part of meeting transit needs, but these major capital projects take years to develop and require a predictable funding commitment. The effect of underfunding the New Starts/Small Starts program will be felt disproportionately in future years. Transit providers would fall further behind in the development of new projects due to the cuts in the Administration proposal, depriving communities of the congestion relief and environmental benefits associated with the projects.
If New Starts project schedules are delayed, project costs also rise due to inflation. A recent study by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) finds that the cost of building surface transportation infrastructure has increased at a much faster rate than the Consumer Price Index. Transportation-related construction costs increased by more than 30 percent between 2003 and 2006, yet the consumer price index for urban areas grew by only 11 percent during that period. Looking ahead, the AGC's research predicts that transportation construction prices will increase at an annual rate of at least 6 percent, but increases could be much higher based on the experience of recent years. Prices spiked 10 percent and 14.1 percent in 2004 and 2005, respectively. If the New Starts/Small Starts program is cut by $300 million in FY 2008, it will require $330 million in FY 2009 to build equivalent projects if costs rise by only 10 percent. The Administration's budget proposal is truly pennywise and pound foolish. In recent years the time required to develop and complete New Starts projects has also continued to grow. This adds further to project costs, and APTA urges the Committee to work with FTA to expedite this process.
We want to make another point, Madam Chairman. SAFETEA-LU restructured the general fund and Mass Transit Account (MTA) funding sources so that MTA outlays are now scored when they are actually spent rather than when they are appropriated. The good news is that MTA balances now are significantly higher than they would have been under the old scoring system. But this also means that the New Starts program is now funded exclusively from the general fund. Madam Chairman, it is important to emphasize that this was done to improve the overall financing of the federal transit program. The change was not meant to create funding uncertainty or program cuts, as the Administration has proposed for the second year in a row.
While we understand the need to protect against spending the public's money on imprudent projects, we also believe FTA has effectively prevented the advance of viable projects by overemphasizing a limited number of benefits in the evaluation of potential New Starts projects, particularly travel time savings. Fixed guideway investment, particularly rail transit, is an alternative that requires long-term vision since the construction and expansion of systems takes time, but it is one of the most effective ways to reduce and prevent congestion in metropolitan areas and advance other national goals.
Finally, APTA urges this Committee to consider providing New Starts projects with the same federal share of project costs provided for other transit and highway investments. Both FTA and Congress have taken a number of actions that have prevented the advancement of New Starts projects that seek a federal share of costs greater than 60 percent, and for most current projects, the local cost share exceeds 50 percent even though current law provides up to an 80 percent federal share. APTA believes that at a time of growing concern about congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and weaning the country off foreign energy sources, the federal government should be encouraging communities to invest in new transit systems and the expansion of current systems. New Starts projects should be treated like other transportation projects and receive an 80/20 federal match ratio.
TRANSIT FIGHTS CONGESTION
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has recognized that system congestion is one of the single largest threats to our nation's economic prosperity and way of life. In 2003, Americans lost 3.7 billion hours and 2.3 billion gallons of fuel sitting in traffic jams as a result of congestion. APTA strongly applauds the Department's efforts to focus national attention on our congested roads, rails and airways, but USDOT's efforts to fight congestion under its National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America's Transportation Network (commonly referred to as the "Congestion Initiative") are simply incomplete. While our nation's anti-congestion "blueprint" should incorporate new strategies such as innovative pricing, private sector investment, and urban partnership elements of the Department's Congestion Initiative, it must also call for a dramatic increase in the use of proven congestion fighting strategies like transit.
34 million trips are taken each weekday in the United States on public transportation, and each trip fights congestion. According to the 2005 Texas Transportation Institute Annual Urban Mobility Report, transit is successfully reducing traffic delays and costs in the 85 urban areas studied. Without transit:
- delays in the 85 urban areas would have increased 27 percent, and
- residents in the urban areas studied would have lost an additional $18.2 billion in time and fuel as a result of increased congestion.
The impacts of congestion run deep. Good public transportation service allows all types of trips to be completed quickly and efficiently. Removing autos from congested urban freeways through transit use speeds truck-borne freight as surely as building highway capacity. In short, we must view the entire transportation network as a single system, one that can be planned managed and financed with a broad view to the overall good. Holes in the network through underinvestment result in degradation of performance for the entire system.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
As our nation revaluates our patterns of energy use, we must recognize the important energy savings that are derived from transit use. Earlier this year, a report by ICF International calculated that public transportation today reduces petroleum consumption by a total of 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline each year. This means:
- 108 million fewer cars filling up - almost 300,000 every day
- 34 fewer supertankers leaving the Middle East - one every 11 days
- over 140,000 fewer tanker truck deliveries to service stations per year
- total savings as great as the entire amount of gasoline consumed in states the size of Nevada, Utah or New Mexico
- five times greater savings than converting the entire 478,000 federal light duty vehicle fleet to alternative fuels.
These savings result from the efficiency of carrying multiple passengers in each transit vehicle; the reduction in traffic congestion from fewer automobiles on the roads; and the varied sources of energy for public transportation.
All savings would be magnified with increased use of transit relative to the automobile. Savings would be magnified still further when we account for the energy efficiencies that are characteristic of cities highly reliant on transit which use much less energy per capita than auto dependent cities. According to research by sustainability experts Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy, U.S. cities use two and a half times more oil than comparable cities in Europe, and five times more oil than comparable cities in Asia.
CONCLUSION
Public transportation plays a key role in meeting the national goals of the Administration and Congress in providing energy independence, congestion relief and transportation mobility options for Americans. APTA strongly believes that the federal government should invest no less than the $9.731 billion level authorized and guaranteed by Congress for FY 2008 in SAFETEA-LU if we are to advance these goals.
Madam Chairman, on behalf of APTA's more than 1500 member organizations, I thank you for this opportunity to express our views.
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