News

Center Board of Directors in Support of Including Human Capital in Federal Transit Asset Management

Posted December 2015

Center Board of Director submitted a letter to Federal Transit Administration on December 14, 2015 in support of the proposals submitted on the Proposed Rulemaking by Dr. Beverly A. Scott, in which she has proposed that workforce skills – or human capital – should be included in the reporting and strategic asset management planning of transit agencies.  Human capital asset management inherently belongs within the overall framework of capital asset management.  If the public transportation industry is going to successfully manage its physical capital assets going forward, it must include human capital within its analytic framework.  Human capital contributes directly to the availability and state of good repair of physical capital assets.  Inadequate or obsolete skills (human capital) in the maintenance workforce can reduce the availability and reliability of critical capital equipment, thus leading to less safe and less on-time service and increasing the operational need for more equipment as spare ratios are pushed up.  Maintenance skill shortfalls shorten the effective usable life of vital capital equipment, leading to premature retirement or replacement of key equipment.  They can lead to capital equipment that fails to operate safely, resulting in increased safety risks to passengers and employees as well as risks of further damage to capital equipment. 

Among the steps that can be taken to increase the amount of training investment in our industry is for FTA to mandate data collection and strategic planning by agencies on worker skills and training.  The NPRM on Transit Asset Management provides a perfect opportunity to meet this need. Agencies should be reporting whether their current workforce skills are up to national standards, how many retirements they expect in the next 5 and 10 years, what new technologies and new training requirements will be coming into their systems in the future, and what specific strategies are being implemented to address these needs.