Products / Projects

NATIONAL TRANSIT DATABASE
About The NTD The NTD Process The NTD Products How the NTD Data is Used What TSP Brings to the NTD

Today the transit industry consists of over 140,000 vehicles, traveling over 48 billion passenger miles, and collecting over $8.5 billion in passenger fares. In the past 10 years the transit industry has grown by over 20 percent - faster than either highway or air travel. As the industry continues to grow, every indication is that the NTD will continue to expand both in scope and use in the years to come.

The National Transit Database (NTD) is the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) national database of statistics for the transit industry. The NTD is comprised of data reported by more than 600 transit agencies across the U.S., which is then analyzed and compiled into reports published by FTA and made available to the public on the www.ntdprogram.gov website.

The database includes all modes of public transportation utilized on local and regional routes throughout the country, including private and public buses, heavy and light rail, ferryboats and vanpool service, as well as services for senior citizens and persons with disabilities, and taxi services operated under contract to a public transportation agency.

To present a clear and detailed view of the nationwide state of transit a lot of information must be collected. This is the job of the transit reporters, who usually fall into one of three groups: transit agencies, providers of purchased transportation services, and voluntary reporters. The types of data reported include:

• Operational Characteristics - Vehicle revenue hours and miles, unlinked passenger trips and passenger miles, etc.
• Service Characteristics - Service reliability and safety, etc.
• Capital Revenues and Assets - Sources and uses of capital, fleet size and age, and fixed guideways, etc.
• Financial Operating Statistics - Revenues, Federal, state and local funding, costs, etc.

In recent years the NTD has grown to include safety, security, and rural transportation data.

Move your cursor over the pictures in the graphic below to follow the NTD process.

FTA disseminates the data collected each report year. To tailor the data to the needs of the congress, other federal agencies / departments, the reporting agencies and the general pubic the NTD produces several publications, including:

• Transit Profiles - This is a "snapshot" view of a transit agency's data for a given report year. The most important service, financial, operational and modal data presented on a single page, including graphs to show relational data and performance trends from prior years' data. A profile is produced for each transit agency, as well as a national summary profile and an aggregate profile for the top 50 agencies.
• Data Tables - The purpose of the data tables is to present data across all transit agencies. There are currently 27 data tables produced, ranging from "Operators' Wages" to "Energy Consumption" to "Age Distribution of Active Revenue Vehicle Inventory."
• National Transit Summaries and Trends - This publication is similar to the data tables, in that it presents "types" of data, but instead of presenting individual agencies' data for the year, it looks at the national summary data, across prior years, to present trends over the past decade. The trends and summaries examined include:
  • Transit in the United States
  • Operating Costs and Performance Measures
  • Quality of Transit Service
  • Reliability
  • ADA Compliance
  • Funding Transit Operations
  • Capital Investment in Transit
  • Bus Fleet
  • Fixed Guideway Mileage
  • Alternative Fuel Usage
  • In addition, aggregate data by UZA and by form is included.

The publications and reports produced by NTD are posted on the NTD website (www.ntdprogram.gov), for download. The NTD website includes prior years' publications as well.

In addition to the publications listed above, NTD produces several other products, including:

• Apportionment dataset (UAF 5307 & FG 5309)
• GPRA performance measures
• ADA compliance data
• Infrastructure data for Conditions and Performance Report
• Manuals: Reporting, Validation, Safety and Security, Rural.

Many federal and state government departments and agencies, universities and research centers, and international studies also make use of NTD data. In addition, transit agencies themselves look at performance measures, historical trends, and conduct special analyses utilizing published NTD data. How the data we collect is used:

• Formulation of National Policy
• Federal: BTS, DOE, EPA, DOL, DOC, FHWA
• State and regional planning and investment
• APTA Data Book
• Special analyses: HOT lanes, fleet age Research
• Private sector (vehicle manufacturers and OEMs).

• Qualified team in place to make a difference
• Project plan to guide milestones and deliverables
• Customer at the forefront
• "Added value" philosophy to guide our efforts
• Making NTD more user-friendly.

People
• FTA and Transit agency feedback
• Staff input on system challenges
• Taking training to a new level.
Processes
• Project plan
• Revisiting processes and procedures.
Technology
• Improvement to validation routines.

• Making NTD more accessible to agencies and FTA
• Adding an intelligence engine to the website
• Enhanced performance measure capabilities