FY 2012 Capital Budget and FY 2012-2023 Capital Program - Septa

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FUNDING OUTLOOK AND SHORTFALL
Fiscal Years 2016-2023 – SEPTA’s Unfunded Capital Needs
The Federal Transit Administration issued a report entitled, National State of Good Repair Assessment, as follow up to its 2009
“Rail Modernization Study.” These reports affirm the financial constraints on the nation’s public transportation systems, and the “old
rail cities” in particular. Taken together, both reports emphasize the magnitude of the state of good repair (SGR) backlog - $77.7 billion
for all transit assets nationwide and $50 billion for rail assets in the nation’s seven “old rail” agencies (CTA–Chicago, MBTA–Boston,
MTA–New York, NJ Transit, BART–San Francisco, SEPTA, and WMATA–Washington, DC).
The Rail Modernization Study included the following findings:
• The seven agencies studied (CTA–Chicago, MBTA–Boston, MTA–New York, NJ Transit, BART–San Francisco, SEPTA, and
WMATA–Washington, DC) account for 80% of rail riders, 50% of track miles and 75% of rail rolling stock.
• 35% of agency assets are in “poor” or “marginal” condition (the end of their useful life). By comparison, less than 20% of
national transit assets (excluding the seven study agencies) are rated marginal or poor.
• Since the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), federal SGR funds have grown from $23.6 to $35.6 billion.
However, increases in eligible entities and project-types have reduced the “old rail cities’” share – leaving them with only 23% of
SGR-eligible federal funds since 1991.
• The FTA estimates $50 billion (all funding sources) is needed to address the backlog and bring the seven agencies to a state of
good repair. Distributed among: Heavy Rail / $37.1B, Commuter Rail / $9.1B, Bus / $2.8B, Light Rail / $0.6B, System-wide /
$0.4B.
SEPTA has continued to confront the challenges of maintaining its infrastructure in a state of good repair. New funding
constraints have exacerbated the backlog of capital needs described in the FTA’s report, which have grown amid broader concerns of
maintaining operating efficiency, achieving ridership growth and improving customer service. This report cites SEPTA’s share of this
backlog being in excess of $4 billion.
The programming amounts and projects listed in the outer years of SEPTA’s Capital Program represent what is required to
address the current unfunded backlog of SEPTA’s capital needs.
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