Handbook Navigates Chutes & Ladders Of Federal Rail Funding

If communities hoping to build a fixed-guideway transit project want federal funding, they must first go through the federal New Starts process. This is no easy task, but now the New Starts Working Group has developed a handbook for accomplishing this.

This handbook is designed for congressional staff to help navigate the chutes and ladders of the New Starts process.

The handbook covers New Starts basics and congressional involvement in project authorization and funding. It provides an overview of New Starts, Small Starts, and Very Small Starts – eligibility, reviews and ratings. The handbook also covers the project development process – how a project moves through the FTA ratings and evaluation process. The handbook includes "Action Steps" and adds helpful "Friendly Advice."

"The New Starts project evaluation and approval process encompasses every minute detail of transit projects from design to construction and it is all administered by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)," the handbook explains. "The New Starts program is the principal federal program that enables transit systems to secure the necessary funds to build or extend fixed guideway projects. It is a multi-year process that includes extensive FTA oversight and review, annual reporting of project status and updated information, with a lot of planning, design, engineering and paperwork from initiation of the project to opening the project for revenue service."