Workshops · Archive
Spring 2024 - Houston
“Mission Control”
Refocusing Agency Resources in a post-COVID world
Transit finance officers from across the nation will gather in Houston to understand the financial challenges of “Mission Control” in the post-pandemic transit environment. The current landscape reflects changes to the level and nature of service provision, innovations to encourage demand for transit, and increasingly costly capital investment – all within the context of an expanded view of the mission of public transportation. This Transit Finance Learning Exchange workshop will center on the budget impact and budget trade-offs of mission refocusing in a post-pandemic world.
Workshop objectives – After attending this conference, participants will be able to:
- Explore capital cost drivers and sister agencies’ budget balancing efforts to maintain state-of-good-repair, support service expansion, and meet other requirements such as decarbonization.
- Develop a realistic and comprehensive assessment of the changed transit industry mission, considering aspects ranging from transit-oriented development to homeless outreach.
- Assess the budget impact of changes in the agency services operated, and agency capacity to sustain pre-pandemic service levels.
- Inventory expanded reduced-fare and free-fare programs, as well as innovations to improve service quality and effectiveness to increase transit usage and understand the financial impact of these initiatives in light of lower ridership.