Introduction

The Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Capital Cost Database (the Database) provides a detailed accounting of federally-funded domestic transit projects’ capital costs over the last 40 years. During the last year, the project team, made up of NYU Marron’s Eric Goldwyn, Alon Levy, and Elif Ensari and Eno Center’s Philip Plotch, reviewed the Database, the Eno Center’s Transit Construction Cost database, NYU Marron’s Transit Costs Project’s database, relevant literature, and conducted interviews and virtual meetings with FTA staff, cost estimators, and transit agency employees primarily drawn from capital construction departments at four transit agencies who have experience using the Database. This report was undertaken for the FTA.

Origins, Purpose, and Use of the Capital Cost Database

The FTA Capital Cost Database was designed to help grantees develop rough order of magnitude cost estimates. The database uses the following eight Standard Cost Categories, which ensures a consistent format for the reporting, estimating, and managing of capital costs for large capital projects receiving FTA funds.

10. Guideway & Track Elements
20. Stations, Stops, Terminals, Intermodal
30. Support Facilities: Yards, Shops, Administrative Buildings
40. Sitework & Special Conditions
50. Systems
60. Right of Way, Land, Existing Improvements
70. Vehicles
80. Professional Services

Each of these eight categories are also broken down in subcategories. For example, Vehicles is broken down into: light rail (70.01), heavy rail (70.02), commuter rail (70.03), bus (70.04), other (70.05), non-revenue vehicles (70.06), and spare parts (70.07). These subcategories are further broken down. For example, within the bus subcategory are small bus (70.041), standard 40-foot bus (70.042), articulated bus (70.043), and unspecified (70.0444).

Since these categories are used for reporting and tracking costs throughout the life of Capital Investment Grant (CIG) projects, the database is available as a resource as projects develop from conceptual design to closeout. The Database was first published in 2010, and is now in its fourth iteration. It currently includes projects completed between the early 1980s and 2020.

The data is presented in two formats, a Microsoft Access database and a comma-separated values (CSV) file. The Access database provides total and unit costs data by Standard Cost Categories. It includes information that is not in the CSV file such as a narrative description and key project development dates. The database can be used to build a high-level cost model and data can be sorted by date and mode.

The CSV file reports the Standard Cost Categories’ total dollar values, units, unit costs, and the midyear of construction. The project team used data from the CSV to build its website’s tables, graphs, and charts. As of May 2024, the team’s tables and graphics can be accessed at: https://transitcosts.com/fta-database-analysis-visuals/

The Database consists of unit costs reported for unique Standard Cost Categories across eight categories. The Standard Cost Categories date back to 2005, and are used by CIG projects to populate the Standard Cost Category Workbook, which is used as a project management tool to establish a consistent format for the reporting, estimating, and managing of capital costs for CIG projects. By standardizing how costs are cataloged, data from one project can be compared to another, assuming the data is accurate.

Some Project Management Oversight Contractors (PMOC) use the database as a preliminary check on the grantees’ cost estimates over the life of the project. “Oversight Procedure 33 – Capital Cost Estimate Review,” (US DOT p.7, 2015) explains, however, that the database “should not be used exclusively or predominantly as the PMOC’s Cost Estimating review tool, it should be consulted with as it allows for a comparison to historical projects, having generally similar characteristics.” The Database is one tool that PMOCs use to determine the quality of cost estimates and track variances.

“TCRP Report 138: Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects” (2010) is the earliest report to reference the database, and was the impetus for the FTA to refine its contents and make it available to the public. The TCRP authors state that the database can help grantees more accurately estimate soft costs/professional services as projects move through the project development phase. Since soft costs range between 9 percent and 66 percent of Standard Cost Categories 10 through 50 in the current data, exclusive of outliers, estimating those costs accurately is significant for projects that cost from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.1 Most relevant to the current study, the report recognizes that there is a proportional relationship between hard costs and soft costs; thus, estimating hard costs accurately helps estimate soft costs accurately.

While the Database is perhaps most useful during the project development phase, grantees have also turned to it during construction to help guide value engineering efforts, such as “right sizing” station designs, vehicle maintenance facilities, and reconfiguring the right of way. Using the Database as a benchmarking tool provides grantees an opportunity to compare their projects against the entire Database or a more appropriate subset of it.