The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) has proposed a fiscal-year 2015 budget that would allocate $415.6m for operations and $470.1m for capital programs, which includes $149.2m for debt service, agency officials announced this week.

The budget was the subject of public hearings this week, with MARTA's board slated to adopt the final budget on June 5.

Additionally, MARTA and city of Atlanta officials announced the city will operate the Atlanta Streetcar with MARTA's oversight for the first 12 months of operation. The streetcar will be operational later this year.

For more details on the MARTA FY2015 budget please visit: http://www.itsmarta.com/FY15-Budget-Highlights-Operating-Capital.pdf  

Sources: Progressive Railroading, MARTA

The Transportation Research Board (TRB), in cooperation with the Transit Development Corporation, released a synthesis of transit practice in early May. NRC Safety Committee Member John Zuspan of Track Guy Consultants collected and synthesized the information and wrote the report, under the guidance of a panel of experts in the subject area.

The scope of TCRP includes a variety of transit research fields including planning, service configuration, equipment, facilities, operations, human resources, maintenance, policy, and administrative practices. This synthesis focused on Transit Track Inspection, gathering information across a range of US rail transit agencies on track inspection practices and policies. The goal is to provide rail transit agencies with a knowledge base of information that might help them to develop their own set of track safety and maintenance standards. Basic information gathered includes agency staffing, agency organization and characteristics, track inspection program criteria, training and certification, procurement, and track safety practices.

This report, along with other rail construction industry resources can be found at www.nrcma.org/go/IndustryResource.