Project

Assessing the Business Case ROI for Intercity Passenger Rail Corridor Investment: Guide for Decision Makers

For the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), EBP developed a guide for evaluating the return on investment (ROI) for both high speed and conventional intercity passenger rail corridor projects. 

The guide provides a means for evaluating benefits, costs and overall business case as viewed from the perspectives of local, state and national agencies, as well as private stakeholders in public private partnerships. It provides “best practice” methods that can be adopted for evaluation of intercity rail investments.

It features three key benefit elements that are not included in traditional benefit-cost analysis as commonly carried out for metropolitan and state planning processes (1) multi-level benefits for different levels of government, (2) equity and intergenerational benefits including sustainability and resilience, and (3) mega-region economic integration impacts. It also documents methods, data sources, analytic tools and reporting system for measuring and presenting findings in terms of a comprehensive business case ROI.

APTA Press Release

Guidebook

Methodology

ROI Toolkit Information and Instructions

ROI Toolkit (Excel workbook-download and unzip)