Site Assessment Instrument for Regional Maintenance Center

Journal of Public Transportation Article in Volume 13, Issue 1 by Mario G. Beruvides, James L. Simonton, Ean-Harn Ng, Natalie M. Waters, Siva Chaivichitmalakul, Cheng-Chu Chiu-Wei, Pelin Z. Altintas, Phil Nash, Texas Tech University and Paul Moon, Texas Department of Transportation

Abstract

To minimize maintenance cost and improve rural transit vehicles services, a Regional Maintenance Center (RMC) concept is being considered by Texas. Currently, rural transit vehicles are maintained and repaired by local garages, where service fees and quality of work performed often are questionable. RMCs are designed to maintain and repair rural transit vehicles within a geographical region. A cost-efficient method to create an RMC is by upgrading an existing maintenance operation. The objective of this study is to create a site assessment instrument to assist in the process of selecting potential maintenance operations that could be upgraded to an RMC. Upon interviewing various rural transportation experts and visiting the benchmark RMC in Illinois, a list of criteria crucial for a successful RMC was compiled and classified into various categories. The result of this benchmarking was used in a preliminary study of Lubbock County, Texas, and vicinity. View the full article or the entire Journal issue.