New Technologies and Their Capital Impact on Operations
Cleveland, Ohio

Summary of TFLEx Spring Workshop

The Spring 2010 TFLEx Workshop was held in Cleveland, Ohio, and was hosted by Loretta Kirk and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority (GCRTA). Our sincere thanks go out to Loretta and her staff for the wonderful job they did in making this workshop a successful event. Five of the sessions were broadcast on the web and our thanks go to Ray Garton for setting up the webcasting and making sure it worked well during the workshop. Thanks again to everyone at the GCRTA. Thanks also to the Cuyahoga Community College for providing what turned out to be one of the best facilities TFLEx has ever had in which to hold a workshop.

The main topic of this workshop was New Technologies and Their Capital Impact on Operations. Joe Costello welcomed participants and gave an overview of the workshop objectives. After his remarks, Joe introduced Joe Calabrese, the CEO of the GCRTA who gave attendees an overview of the issues his agency has been facing with the current economy.

The first presenter of the workshop was Greg Kildare, LA MTA's Executive Officer for Risk Management. Greg gave an interesting talk on LA's use of technology and their experience with Smart Drive cameras in dealing with liability issues and related impact on the cost of insurance.

Two member agencies then discussed prioritization of capital projects and how life cycle costing can be used to aid in the process. Rick Harcum, from WMATA talked about their mid-life rebuild program WMATA uses to extend the life of their rolling stock. Using life cycle costing, WMATA has figured that it saves nearly $500,000 per vehicle by extending the life of each coach from seven years to fourteen.

Grace Gallucci, from the RTA in Chicago, gave an update on their capital prioritization process. They have made progress since Grace first detailed the new process at the Boston workshop in the fall of 2008.

On Thursday Brett Jones from the Cuyahoga Community College's (Tri-C) Logistics and Distribution Institute and Terry Cordell briefed members on the proposed partnership between the two organizations in updating the Transit 101 e-learning modules. Tri-C contacted TFLEx about working together to have their professional staff update the content of the modules to make them more current and more interesting for participants. Tri-C has submitted a proposal that will be reviewed at the business meeting.

Terry Cordell briefly detailed the results of the IT Survey that had been sent out to members prior to the workshop. Six agencies had responded and the results are posted on the web site (and included at the end of this summary). As more are received they will be added to the results. Irene DeMers then led the Needs and Leads session which wrapped up the day.

Friday morning's first session was an economic update from Dr. Edward (Ned) Hill, Dean and Professor at Cleveland State University, who proved once again that economics presentations can be fun and interesting. His presentation can be heard (and the PowerPoint presentation viewed) by going to the TFLEx web site. Some of his points:

a.) North America is leading the industrial world's recovery
b.) The recovery in employment growth will lag, compared to past recessions
c.) Average duration of unemployment is the highest it has been since the 1960's
d.) The economic disadvantage of the unskilled is growing and accelerating
e.) Consumer confidence is starting to pick up, but CFO's are more confident in their own firms than in the economy as a whole.
f.) For the federal deficit, current near term deficits are defensible; long term prospects are troubling
g.) Personal savings are beginning to recover; the financial burdens of households are recovering, but still high
h.) This is the second workshop in a row with a presentation on the economy and it is a session that will probably be repeated at most future workshops. Attendees were very interested in what Dr. Hill had to say and there was a lot of discussion during the Q & A.

The workshop wrapped up with a rehearsal by Grace Gallucci of a presentation she will be giving at the APTA Bus and Paratransit Conference on May 3. TFLEx and the FTA have begun a dialogue about the possibility of working together to make improvements to the data gathering for the NTD.

The Fall 2010 Workshop will be held in Seattle, WA from October 18-19, 2010. The workshop will consist of sessions all day Monday and Tuesday until noon, with the business meeting to be held on Tuesday afternoon. More information, including topics, will be forthcoming.

The regular Business Meeting was chaired by Joe Costello on Friday afternoon. Minutes of this meeting are also available on the Sharepoint web site. All members are encouraged to attend the Business Meetings at the workshops.

Presentations from the Spring Workshop are available to members on the TFLEx Sharepoint website at http://tflex.securespsites.com.