Maintenance Staffing Levels for Light Rail Transit

This synthesis documents light rail maintenance staffing practices and factors important in their development at U.S. transit agencies. It covers the areas of maintenance functions, new light rail start-up, and management in attempting to give better insight into the variables affecting maintenance staffing. This topic is of interest to transit managers of existing light rail transit (LRT) operations and those involved in the planning or implementing of new LRT lines. It is also of interest to agency directors or general managers and executive or board members who need to understand how the industry accomplishes system maintenance. A survey was conducted to gather feedback from U.S. transit agency staff working in LRT maintenance. Based on survey results, topical case studies were developed to highlight specific policies and practices at four U.S. agencies--San Diego (CA) Trolley, Inc.; Utah Transit Authority; Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet); and the Greater Cleveland (OH) Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). These combine with supplemental information gleaned from the Federal Transit Administration\u27s National Transit Database to update and expand on the operating characteristics of U.S. LRT systems