Download or read book Public Transportation: New Starts Program Challenges and Preliminary Observations on Expediting Project Development written by A. Nicole Clowers and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009-12 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Starts program is an important source of new capital investment in mass transportation. The Fed. Transit Admin. (FTA) must prioritize transit projects for funding by evaluating, rating, and recommending projects on the basis of specific financial commitment and project justification criteria, such as cost-effectiveness, economic dev¿t. effects, land use, and environ. benefits. To be eligible for fed. funding, a project must advance through the different project dev¿t. phases of the New Starts program, including alternatives analysis, preliminary engineering, and final design. This testimony discusses the: (1) key challenges associated with the New Starts program; and (2) options that could help expedite project dev¿t. in the New Starts program.