AN ASSET MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR STATE DOT'S TO MEET TRANSIT FLEET REQUIREMENTS

State Departments of Transportation (DOT) that provide the bulk of matching funds to local transit agencies for the purchase of new buses, are duly concerned about the escalating costs of new buses and the lack of sufficient funds to keep up with their replacement costs. The authors present an asset management framework that can be used by state DOT’s to (1) allocate capital dollars for the dual purpose of purchasing new buses and rebuilding existing buses within the constraints of a fixed budget, when the needs of all the constituent agencies in a peer group are considered, and (2) distribute funds among the agencies in an equitable manner. The proposed framework includes two optimization models. Model 1 attempts to maximize the weighted fleet life of all the buses that are being purchased and rebuilt for a given peer group, within the constrains of a fixed budget. Model 2 is designed to maximize the Remaining Life (RL) of the entire peer group comprising of the existing buses as well as those being replaced or rebuilt. Case studies presented to demonstrate the application of the models show that the framework is viable, and can be used for the designated purpose with fleet data that are currently available with the transit agencies. Further research on testing the framework is recommended to ensure its applicability under different sets of circumstances. TRB 2003 Annual Meeting CD-ROM Paper revised from original submittal.