www.steerdaviesgleave.

com
Vancouver, No. 1 for livability
the review
North American Edition
TransitAction Plan for Sacramento
Travel behaviour: making the commitment to change High-speed rail initiatives
NA03
Issue 03 October 2009
Ian Sproul
Principal Consultant
Ian is an expert in public
transport, specializing in
rapid transit schemes. His
25 years of experience
include feasibility studies,
scheme development and
evaluation, operational planning, detailed
design and procurement.
Jimin Hong
Consultant
Jimin specializes in
demand modelling and
forecasting for trafc and
pedestrian networks,
including extreme-scale
crowd events, stadia and
railway stations.
If you are considering your future and are
looking for somewhere to make a real
difference, Steer Davies Gleave has much to
offer. Contact careers@sdgworld.net
Nicky Ward
Principal Consultant
An expert in transportation
demand management and
behaviour change, Nicky
has joined the Vancouver
ofce to support our urban
transit offer and project
manage new assignments.
Linda Lin
Assistant Consultant
After receiving her Civil
Engineering degree in
Transportation at University
of British Columbia, Linda
joined the Vancouver ofce.
Her skills include GIS and
transport modelling.
Lauren Alexander
Assistant Consultant
Lauren completed her
Architectural Engineering
degree at the University of
Texas at Austin. Her skills
include AutoCAD, structural
analysis and general
computer programming.
Opening comment

Steer Davies Gleave has been working in
North America for more than a decade and,
with the acquisition of the transportation
planning team from Charles River Associates
in January 2009, we have solidied our
position on the East Coast, adding eight staff
and a new Boston ofce (see story opposite).
Together with our growing team in Vancouver,
we are now providing the full range of Steer
Davies Gleave services supporting our
clients from strategy right through to delivery.
With a growing need for greater accountability
of public spending alongside limited nancial
resources, our clients are increasingly
turning to us to help them assess and
evaluate projects in a clear, transparent and
defendable manner. In this edition, we have
provided a short summary of the processes
we have applied to our projects in North
America (see page 4). Alongside a growing
workload assisting governments at all levels
in the US and Canada with the evaluation
of project and policy options, Steer Davies
Gleave has also developed an enviable
reputation for helping our clients analyze,
develop and mobilize innovative project
nancing packages (see page 9).
As always, we hope you enjoy reading
your latest copy of The Review and welcome
any feedback.
Best regards,
Features
t Edmonton: Expanding LRT p3
to achieve the City Vision
t TransitAction Plan for Sacramento p5
t Vancouver, No. 1 for livability p6
t High-speed rail initiatives p10
New faces
Earlier this year, Steer Davies Gleave
acquired the former transportation planning
practice of Charles River Associates (CRA), a
highly respected global consulting rm with
headquarters in Boston. Long recognized
for innovative travel demand and revenue
forecasting, CRA has established a strong
record of successful projects in rail, urban
transit and aviation as well as for roads,
tunnels and bridges.
Recent projects include:
t An independent review of a proposed
toll plan study for Austin, Texas that
analyzed toll roads and managed lanes;
t Ridership and revenue forecasting for
Amtraks higher-speed rail service in
the Northeast Corridor;
t Travel demand forecasting and
evaluation of transportation and
land use improvements for the
City of Atlanta;
2
SDG invests in US market
t Trafc and revenue forecasting for
studies in Hampton Roads, Virginia;
t An air trafc demand management
study for the airports serving the
San Francisco area.
Steer Davies Gleave had been working with
the CRA team on US transportation projects
since 2007. It was during this collaborative
period that the similarities in the two
companies work cultures and commitments
to objective, high-quality work product
became apparent.
The acquisition has substantially
strengthened Steer Davies Gleaves presence
and growing portfolio of work in North
America. Our New York ofce was merged
with the CRA team in Boston, and this now
forms the Steer Davies Gleave headquarters
in the US. The ofce is led by Jon Bottom and
provides the compete range of Steer Davies
Gleave services.
Jon Bottom
Boston
Ofce Leader
Ian Druce
Vancouver
Ofce Leader
3
The Expansion Plan advocates a
compact, urban style network with six
radial corridors within the citys existing
developed boundaries and identied the
need for additional capacity through the
downtown area.
In developing the overall LRT network
plan, consideration was given to the style
of LRT system and how it would work to
best serve passengers and accomplish the
citys strategic goals.
The existing high-oor LRT, with its two
kilometre station spacing, is largely
suburban in style, relying heavily on
bus transfers and park and ride. This is
contrasted by a more urban style, low-oor
LRT system, with closer station spacing
that can provide greater connectivity to
people and places, as well as a better t
with the land use and TOD. In addition,
this approach provides a greater walking
catchment, which makes it less reliant on
large-scale bus transfers and park and ride.
One of the early recommendations of
Steer Davies Gleaves work was to move
the system style more towards an urban
style LRT to support more compact urban
communities and provide a closer t with
the Citys Vision.
Other recommendations of our work
include:
t Adding stations to existing lines
t Stops planned in conjunction with TOD
t Improving local pedestrian, cycle and
bus connectivity
Steer Davies Gleave, working with the
city, also identied that switching to
low-oor vehicles for all new, future lines
and the creation of two overlapping high
and low-oor networks, each with three
radial corridors would provide additional
benets. It would provide the additional
downtown capacity required and stops
could be smaller, better connected to
people and places and t within existing
communities.
The development of this integrated
wider network will better connect
Edmontons people to the majority of
its major employment, recreation,
education and shopping destinations,
signicantly improving the ease of
movement around the city, reducing the
dependence on the private car and help
to meet the citys objectives.
As Edmonton progresses with its integrated
approach to land use and transit planning,
it will once again be a leader in North
America, demonstrating how LRT can shape
a sustainable 21st century city.
To nd out more or discuss further
contact Ian Sproul
e ian.sproul@sdgworld.net
Edmonton: Expanding LRT
to achieve the City Vision
The new Art Galley of Alberta, opening early 2010. Daytime rendering. Design
by Randall Stout, FAIA, RSA, President, Randall Stout Architects Inc. Composite
LRT image produced by Steer davies Gleave.
Edmonton was a North American transit
leader in the 1970s when it was the rst
city to introduce modern light rail. The
system has continued to expand but now,
with new technologies and a recognized
need for better integration of transportation
and land use, a need for a new way of
planning the citys LRT expansion is
essential.
The City of Edmonton has a strategic plan
for the next 10 years called the The Way
Ahead that calls for a more compact,
livable, sustainable city. This plan is
supported by the transportation masterplan
The Way We Move, which identied
LRT expansion as a way of developing
a more compact urban form that would
see Edmonton build upwards and not
outwards, and help meet the citys land use,
transportation and livability goals. The land
use plans for Edmonton are covered by The
Way We Grow document and new Transit-
oriented Development (TOD) guidelines
have also been developed.
With a commitment from the citys Mayor
and Council to progress the plans quickly,
Edmonton began the concurrent route
planning for a number of extensions. In
parallel, Steer Davies Gleave was retained
to develop the overall LRT Expansion Plan
and develop a system denition that would
best meet the wider Vision objectives.
The city scale, urban style LRT Expansion
Plan proposed by Steer Davies Gleave was
adopted by Council in June 2009 and now
forms the context for the on-going route
planning work.
Multiple account
evaluation
4
Further detailed criteria are developed
within each account to ensure that local
conditions and requirements are reected
and that different aspects of the benets
and impacts are measured. These can
include, for example:
t community account equity, safety,
accessibility, placemaking etc
t environment account
CO
2
and GHG emissions,
disturbance, heritage etc
t economic account
economic
competitiveness,
property values, job
creation, transit system efciency etc
In addition to the core accounts, many
of our frameworks have also added a nal
account which addresses deliverability,
covering, for example, feasibility
(construction and operations), affordability
and acceptability.
Using a combination of quantitative
(e.g. costs, ridership models, etc) and
qualitative (e.g. scale of community
impacts) assessments, the MAE framework
is completed to enable a like-for-like
comparison of the options. In most
instances, no explicit weighting is applied
to accounts, rather this process is left to the
decision-makers so that they can base their
choices on the information presented and
place their priorities on the criteria they are
most concerned with in order to select the
option(s) to develop.
To nd out more or discuss further
contact Chris Whitehouse
e chris.whitehouse@sdgworld.net
News in brief
Transit-Oriented Development
Newton Town Centre in Greater Vancouver
has a new lease of life. Steer Davies Gleave,
working with lead consultant and land
use master planners Glatting Jackson, is
undertaking trafc modelling and a transit
operations assessment for a revised Town
Centre including a new transit exchange
and more pedestrian-scale, mixed-use
development (see page 6 for more details
of our work in Vancouver).
Portland METRO adopts High Capacity
Transit (HCT) Plan
On July 9, 2009, the Portland Metro
Council adopted the high capacity transit
system tiers and corridors for the Regional
Transportation Plan. Since mid-2008,
Steer Davies Gleave has provided support
to lead consultants Nelson\Nygaard and
Portland METRO (the Metropolitan
Planning Organization for the greater
Portland, Oregon region) in developing
a scalable multiple account evaluation
process that enabled METRO to undertake
a rst sifting of a full long list of possible
corridors and then perform a more detailed
assessment of a shorter list of likely
candidate route options.
4
In a world of increasingly scarce resources,
investments of tax-payer dollars are coming
under greater public scrutiny in particular
the ability to demonstrate that projects
provide value for money across a broad
range of criteria.
For over a decade, Steer Davies Gleave has
been advising governments in England,
Scotland and Wales on developing and
applying evaluation processes to help assess
a range of transportation investments and
policies. Over the past two years, we have
brought this experience to North America
as part of our work in Edmonton, Portland,
Sacramento, Toronto and Vancouver as we
have helped our clients plan, develop and
assess investments and proposals using a
Multiple Account Evaluation (MAE) framework
process.
While the specics of each MAE framework
vary based on local circumstances and
priorities, each one sets out the range of
accounts to consider and all reect the
core dimensions of sustainability. While
this inevitably includes traditional nancial
measures (e.g. cost:benet analysis, cost
per rider, etc), increasingly, environmental
benets, impacts on the local and regional
economies, public acceptability, urban
development and issues of social equity are
being assessed and included.
In each case, the accounts are tailored to
local conditions and linked to the regions
broader land use transportation plans and
community aspirations. This includes linking
the project vision and objectives into the
MAE criteria to serve as reference points
to ensure the options continue to reect
the overall project purpose and help to
identify success criteria for the post-project
implementation evaluation.
TransitAction Plan:
Sacramentos future
is transit-friendly
5
Sacramento, the capital city of California,
has been reviewing its land use and
transportation plans in order to create a
vision for the future that includes more
compact, livable communities supported
by a public transit system that reduces the
reliance on the private car. On August 10,
2009, the Sacramento Regional Transit
Districts (RT) Board of Directors approved
the TransitAction Plan, RTs new long-term
plan, setting out a transit vision for the
next 30 years.
Sacramento has seen signicant
population growth since RTs last Transit
Masterplan in 1993, most of which has
been accommodated in suburban housing.
Despite improvements to the light rail
network and a modernized bus eet, transit
services have only been able to capture
about 1% of the travel market in the region.
Concerned about climate change, air
quality and a forecast of a further increase
in population, local governments drew up
a long-term land use Blueprint in 2004
that applies smart growth principles and a
Transit-Oriented Development program in
order to shape a more sustainable urban
landscape less reliant on the car. RT fully
supports the Blueprint and developed the
TransitAction Plan as the vision for public
transit which supports and complements
the regions long term goals.

Steer Davies Gleave worked with RT
for almost 18 months developing the
TransitAction Plan that includes an
integrated package of transit investments
designed to make transit a real
transportation choice in the Sacramento
region. The Plan includes investment in
commuter rail, light rail (LRT), Streetcar,
European Street Tram, Bus Rapid Transit
and Hi-Bus (high speed, high quality,
high frequency) corridors, all supported
by a network of local community and
neighbourhood circulator services. It
also provides a comprehensive package
of complementary measures including
improvements to stops and shelters,
waynding, ticketing and information,
sidewalks and access, transit centres, park
and ride facilities, and wider transportation
demand management measures.
Steer Davies Gleave has also provided
RT with the tools it needs to focus on
the linkages between future transit
investment and higher-density, mixed-use
development. Critically, in these nancially
challenging times, Steer Davies Gleave
worked with RT and a team of nancial
experts to develop a funding plan to
ensure that the Vision could be translated
into reality and deliver real results.
The development of the nancial plan
included a comprehensive public
outreach process which included the very
successful online Willingness-to-Pay game
developed by Steer Davies Gleave that
asked the public to select their priority
transit investments and balance the costs
and benets of the system.
The TransitAction Plan Executive Summary is
available at http://www.sacrt.com/
To nd out more or discuss further
contact Ian Druce
e ian.druce@sdgworld.net
Benets Cases
for rapid transit in
Greater Toronto
In November 2008, Metrolinx (the
transportation authority for the Greater
Toronto and Hamilton Region) adopted
The Big Move, its Regional Transportation
Plan. The plan proposes new transportation
projects that amount to $2 billion annually
over the next 25 years the largest public
transit expansion in the Toronto region for
half a century. However, to ensure that the
benets of such a large investment are
maximized, it is crucial to provide decision-
makers with the appropriate information to
inform their decisions, based on a robust and
consistent evaluation process.
To that end, Steer Davies Gleave has been
supporting Metrolinx since 2008 in the
development of a Benets Case template
and undertaking Benets Cases for a range
of projects. Of particular importance was the
development of the template and ensuring
it addressed a triple bottom line evaluation
of the relative environmental, economic and
social impacts of each transit project and
linked to The Big Move principles.
Putting the template into action, the
individual project evaluations have analyzed
the relative merits and costs of alternative
project options, which may include variations
in the alignment, technology, performance,
stations and/or phasing of the project.
The work has included the development of
10 Benets Cases to date and has led to
the recent announcement by the Ontario
government of $9 billion in funding for four of
those projects (York VIVA, Eglinton Crosstown
Rapid Transit, Sheppard-Finch LRT and
Scarborough Rapid Transit).
To nd out more or discuss further
contact Dan Gomez-Duran
e dan.gomez-duran@sdgworld.net
5
Vancouver,
Number 1
for livability
Located between the mountains and
the ocean, Vancouver is renowned
for its incomparable natural beauty.
However, none of the regions livability
has been taken for granted. For the past
two decades plans like the Transport
2021, the Livable Region Strategic Plan,
and Transport 2040 have focused on
integrated regional planning, increasing
transportation choices, preserving the
natural environment and concentrating
development. More recently, these efforts
have expanded to encompass dealing with
climate change and the active adoption of
sustainability as a cornerstone of plans.
For the second year in a row, the Economist
Magazines Intelligence Unit survey has
ranked Vancouver as the most livable
city in the world, ahead of Vienna and
Melbourne. The ranking was based on an
assessment of ve key factors: stability,
healthcare, culture & environment,
education and infrastructure.
Today, the Metro Vancouver region is made
up of 21 cities and municipalities. It has
a population of around 2.3 million and
remains among the fastest-growing regions
in North America. With its population
growth and an increasing role as an air and
sea gateway between North America and
Asia, effective, clean transportation will
be critical to the regions future economic,
environmental and social well-being if it is
to retain its enviable livability status.
Transportation in the region is the
responsibility of the South Coast British
Columbia Transportation Authority
(TransLink). TransLink was the rst
North American transportation authority
to be responsible for the planning,
nancing and managing of all public
transit in addition to major regional roads
and bridges, cycling infrastructure and
vehicle emissions testing.
With transportation as a major
contributor to maintaining livability,
the region is constantly looking at ways
to reduce car dependence and increase
public transit use. Through the integrated
efforts of TransLink and its partner
agencies, the region has the highest
share of trips by sustainable modes
(i.e. walking, cycling and transit) on the
West Coast and is actively working to
reach a market share over 50% by 2040.
The region already has a comprehensive
SkyTrain network, supported by
complementary trolleybus, bus and ferry
services. A new rapid transit line, the
Canada Line, linking downtown Vancouver
to the Airport and Richmond, also opened
in August 2009 as the city prepares to host
the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
The Metro Vancouver region continues
to explore ways to improve its public
transportation network. Steer Davies
Gleave was retained by TransLink in Spring
2009 to work on three linked rapid transit
projects. The three projects provide a
great showcase of the companys diverse
skills which include, long term network-
6
wide strategy development, alternatives
analysis, project development & design,
public engagement and operational
reviews. This wide range of capabilities
has allowed TransLink to appoint the
Steer Davies Gleave-led team for all three
projects, providing an integrated and
coordinated approach.
t rapid transit strategic network
review TransLink and its partners
have spent a great deal of time and
effort planning for signicant rapid
transit up to 2020 with a number of
rail and bus rapid transit corridors
now either in the planning or design
stages. Steer Davies Gleave has been
retained to undertake the next stage of
network planning through the Strategic
Network Review to identify what system
expansion will be required beyond
2020 to 2040 and to help TransLink
plan the sequencing and phasing of
those projects. This process includes
the development of the modelling and
evaluation tools including a multiple
account evaluation process (see article
on page 4) as well as a number
of related near term deliverables
including an assessment of the City
of Vancouvers Streetcar Project, the
integration of the Evergreen Line into
the SkyTrain network and network-
wide operations and maintenance
requirements.
t ubc line rapid transit study A
rapid transit line connecting Broadway-
Commercial Drive Station to the Central
Broadway business district and to
the University of British Columbia
(UBC), has been included in strategic
transit plans for over 10 years. This
is a corridor that is served today by
TransLinks highly successful B-Line
express bus service, but this line is
reaching its capacity as activity in the
12km long UBC corridor continues to
grow. The corridor, which traverses a
part of Vancouver that services major
medical complexes, UBC and the
vibrant Central Broadway area, is an
important corridor for improvement.
Steer Davies Gleave has been retained
to undertake a comprehensive review
of all potential alignments and rapid
transit modes including bus rapid
transit (BRT), streetcar, modern light rail
(LRT), as well as a westward extension
of the existing SkyTrain system. The
two-phase study will develop a Vision
Statement, a set of related objectives
and a multiple account evaluation
framework. Using these tools, the long
list of options will be redcuced to a
shortlist. These will then be the subject
of more detailed design, costing,
ridership forecasting and evaluation.
A comprehensive outreach program will
also provide inputs to the process that
will conclude with the denition
of a single preferred option that will
then move forward to detailed design
and implementation.
t skytrain expo line capacity
expansion The SkyTrain System
opened in December 1985, with the
rst Expo Line from Vancouver to
New Westminster, coinciding with the
Worlds Fair, Expo 86. Since then, the
system has been extended across the
Fraser River and a second line, the
Millennium line, added. Ridership
on the system is now over 270,000
passengers per day and exceeding
capacity during peak hours. Steer
Davies Gleave is providing forecasts of
future demand and assessing potential
7
physical and operational options to
double the capacity of the Expo Line
linking the Central Business District
of Vancouver with the rapidly growing
communities south of the Fraser River.
As Alan Jones, Steer Davies Gleaves
Project Director points out, the Metro
Vancouver region, like many other North
American urban areas, is facing up to
new challenges continuing to plan for
population increases and economic growth
while retaining its inherent attractiveness
and responding to the need to plan in a
sustainable way and address climate
change targets. The provision of improved
public transportation for TransLinks Metro
Vancouver region requires an integrated
approach linking new rapid transit
investment to sustainable land use
plans and supporting transportation
demand management policies. This in
turn requires a partnership approach
between Translink, local, provincial and
federal government and the residents of
the region. With our world-view on these
issues, Steer Davies Gleave aims to add to
the partnership by bringing our extensive
expertise to these challenges.

To nd out more or discuss further
contact Alan Jones
e alan.jones@sdgworld.net
Climate change, obesity and rising
gas prices present challenges but also
opportunities for North American cities
to move from a traditional predict and
provide approach of increasing road
capacity towards a more cost-effective,
Transportation Demand Management (TMD)
approach.
Peoples lives and travel patterns are
complex; building a low-carbon future means
that sustainable travel behaviour must be
a realistic and natural choice for people in
everyday life. TDM is an integrated approach
to transportation planning which aims to
reduce automobile dependency and distance
travelled through the application of a broad
range of measures including school, employer
and residential travel planning. TDM supports
infrastructure investment, sustainable land
use and transport policies, and many of
the other long term goals of local, regional,
provincial and federal governments.
While some cities and regions in North
America have taken an integrated demand
management approach to transportation and
land use planning, policy makers, particularly
in Canada, have been less responsive to the
role of TDM (also referred to as alternative
transportation or Smarter Choices) than other
comparable economies, such as the UK and
Western Europe.
Despite the TDM sector in Canada still being
in its infancy, there are excellent examples
of school and employer-based initiatives
being promoted by various agencies across
8
Making the
commitment to change
the country. Green Communities based in
Ontario, for example, is seeking funding
to spearhead the expansion of a school
travel planning pilot program from four
provinces to every province and territory in
Canada. Successful programs elsewhere
have illustrated that committed political and
nancial support is critical if such initiatives
are to succeed and deliver sustained
behaviour change.
The collective wealth of TDM knowledge and
experience, built up by the international TDM
community over the past decade, provides
an excellent opportunity for regional and
local governments to research the lessons
learnt from elsewhere and adapt existing,
effective TDM approaches in the creation
of their own strategies and solutions. It is
worth drawing attention to recent large-
scale, integrated TDM programs from the UK
that illustrate what a sustained and more
integrated program of measures, combined
with infrastructure improvement and social
marketing, can achieve.
The UK Department for Transport funded
three Sustainable Travel Demonstration
Towns Darlington, Peterborough and
Worcester which ran highly integrated
smarter choices programs over ve years
between 2004 and 2008. The aim of the
projects was to encourage the whole
community to walk, cycle and take public
transit more often and to reduce single-
occupancy vehicle use. At the end of the ve-
year project, automobile use had fallen by up
to 9% across the three towns.
Smarter Travel Sutton (STS) is an $8 million,
three-year, social marketing campaign
which encourages the 184,500 residents
of the London Borough of Sutton, (a
suburban Borough in South London) to
travel sustainably. Funded by Transport
for London, and delivered in partnership
with Sutton Council and other agencies
including Steer Davies Gleave, the three year
comprehensive TDM program aims to reduce
trafc congestion by using behaviour change
interventions.
At the end of year two (2008), the program
had delivered a 2% modal shift away from
car use, a 19% reduction in car trips to
school, and a rise in bus patronage of 13%.
In addition, cycling levels in Sutton were 50%
higher from AprilOctober 2008 than they
were for the same period in 2007.
While these programs have required
signicant political and resource commitment
to succeed, they offer signicant value for
money when compared to traditional capital
investment solutions. In business case terms,
integrated TDM programs have been shown
to generate almost three times the benet to
cost invested.
These projects offer even greater benets
when implemented in conjunction with
infrastructure improvements. TDM should be
given serious consideration in any local or
regional transportation strategy.
To nd out more or to discuss further
contact Nicky Ward
e nicky.ward@sdgworld.net
Despite uncertainties about the credit
market and a sometimes sceptical public
opinion, there is still a high interest in
using Public Private Partnerships (P3s)
to help fund needed transportation
infrastructure in North America. Steer
Davies Gleave continues to remain active
in this area, advising government agencies
and project developers alike.
We began our North American P3 activity
by supporting project developers, and
we continue to support them as they
pursue opportunities in the United
States and Canada. For example, we
were commissioned by a private sector
infrastructure developer to produce trafc
forecasts for the Alligator Alley toll road
concession in southern Florida. Based in
part upon our forecasts, the developer
chose not to make a nal bid. We acted in
a similar role for a private sector bid on the
I-635 Managed Lanes project in the Dallas-
Fort Worth region, and the bidder awarded
the concession on the A30 in Montreal. In
addition to supporting developers directly,
we continue to work for lenders as well. For
example, we were recently commissioned
by DEPFA BANK plc and OHL Infrastructure
to act as the lenders trafc advisor for the
implementation and operation of toll-
managed lanes on I-820, known as the
North Tarrant Expressway.
In recent months, we have grown our
support for government agencies in the
P3 arena, with project assignments that
have ranged from providing advice on
specic projects to more general policy
advice, as well as developing custom
tools for government staff to use to
conduct their own project evaluation.
For example, we are acting as the trafc
and revenue consultant for the Georgia
Department of Transportation as they
evaluate Public Private Initiatives, and
have already developed a set of trafc and
revenue forecasts used to evaluate the
business case for a proposed managed
lanes project. Another example of project
North American
P3 activity
specic advice is a recent toll study
that we conducted for the Chesapeake
Expressway, in which we recommended
a slight modication to the toll structure
in order to provide revenues sufcient to
satisfy the obligations of its outstanding
debt. We have also provided analyses
relating to public policy issues. For
example, we provided expert analysis of
a number of specic transportation P3
public policy questions for the US DOTs
Ofce of Inspector General. On the other
end of the range, we have developed a tool
for the Houston-Galveston Area Council
(the planning organization for the greater
Houston metropolitan area) that allows
its staff to evaluate the bonding capacity
of proposed toll projects. This will assist
H-GAC staff in a number of their ongoing
activities, such as assessing the nancial
feasibility of a proposed toll project
or preparing a nancially-constrained
Regional Transportation Plan.
To nd out more or discuss further
contact David Cuneo
e david.cuneo@sdgworld.net
Sustainable
transportation
Steer Davies Gleave is the market leader for
delivering sustainable transport solutions,
working on public and private projects
across the world. We continue to invest in
developing new techniques and work with
colleagues across all areas of the company
to ensure that a sustainable transportation
philosophy is integrated into our wider
planning offer.
What we can do for you:
t Voluntary travel behaviour change
strategy & implementation
t Travel demand management
interventions
t Sustainable solutions for new
development
t Urban design of pedestrian and
cycle-friendly public space
t Promotion & marketing
t Travel plans
t Personal travel planning
t Cycling strategies & training
t Walking strategies & pedestrian
environment audits
t Monitoring effectiveness
To nd out more about our sustainable
travel services contact Nicky Ward
e nicky.ward@sdgworld.net
9
High-speed rail initiatives
The FRA required potential applicants to
indicate their interest via a pre-application
that was due in July. A total of 278 pre-
applications, amounting to $102 billion were
received.
Applications will be reviewed in a three-
stage process.
Following an initial stage to verify an
applicants basic eligibility, applications will
be evaluated together according to six criteria:
transportation benets, economic recovery,
other public benets, project management
approach, sustainability of benets and
timeliness of project completion. A rating
between 1 and 5 will be assigned for each
applicable criterion, and an overall rating
produced for each applicant. A nal selection
stage will review the applications considering
criteria such as regional distribution,
innovation and partnerships. The FRA expects
to develop and enhance its application review
process over time.
It is widely recognized that this is just a
down payment against the full costs of
developing an HSR system in the US. As
part of the discussion of the USDOT surface
transportation multiyear funding framework,
a congressional committee recently proposed
authorizing $50 billion from general
government revenues for HSR development,
and between $1 and $4 billion are likely to
be included in the FY2010 transportation
appropriation bill.
10
The FRA guidance provides four funding tracks:
t track 1 projects: Provide grants to
apply individual projects that are ready
to go, with preliminary engineering and
environmental work completed. Federal
funding share can be 100%.
t track 2 programs: Develop entire
phases or geographic sections of HSR
corridors that have completed corridor
plans, environmental documentation
and a prioritized list of projects to help
meet the corridor objectives. Federal
shares for projects under this track can
also be up to 100%.
t track 3 planning: Enter into
cooperative agreements for planning
activities, to create the corridor program
and project pipeline needed to fully
develop an HSR network. Planning
activities funded under this Track require
a 50% non-Federal match.
t track 4 fy2009 appropriations-
funded projects: An alternative to Track
1 for applicants able to contribute at least
50% of project cost. This Track offers
applicants simplied grant agreement
terms, and up to ve years to complete
projects (vs. two years under Track 1).
In April 2009, the Obama administration
released its strategic plan for high-speed
rail (HSR) in the US. The strategic plan
dened a process by which states, groups
of states or other entities could compete
for money from the Federal government to
develop individual rail projects or corridor
rail programs. This is the rst time that the
US government has made money available
for a nationwide high-speed passenger rail
program: the budget for this purpose has
gone from $0 to over $8 billion in two years.
The strategic plan was followed in mid-June
by detailed guidance regarding application
requirements and procedures for competing
for HSR project funding.
These two events represent the initial
milestones in the implementation of the
new Federal High Speed Intercity Passenger
Rail (HSIPR) Program. As one of the
administrations foremost transportation
priorities, the goal of the HSIPR Program
is to address the nations transportation
challenges by investing in an efcient
passenger rail network that connects
communities across the US.
Conference circuit
Over the next few months Steer Davies Gleave
will be busy presenting and attending a
number of conferences. We look forward to
meeting you there!
Rail~Volution
The foremost conference about building livable
communities with transit goes to Boston
this year. We will be presenting a paper on
Edmontons ambitious plans for major LRT
expansion to a ve-line network following the
complementary land use and transportation
plans recently approved by the city. These are
based on adopting an integrated land use and
transportation approach with a TOD policy
underpinning the transit planning process. For
more information on Edmonton see page 3.
www.railvolution.com
Canadian TDM Summit
Organized by the Association of Commuter
Transportation (ACT) of Canada, this
conference showcases the latest developments
in Transportation Demand Management
techniques and experiences. We will be
presenting a paper on our experiences
delivering integrated behaviour change
programs in London in a joint paper with
Transport for London.
www.actcanada.com
High Speed Rail 2009
Steer Davies Gleaves Head of Rail, Jim Collins,
will be speaking at the US High-Speed Rail
Associations Conference in Washington DC
on October 23rd, where he will open the
conference on the rst day. International
speakers from RENFE, DB, JR Railways,
Foster+Partners, UIC, Bombardier, Arcadis
to name a few, will join US congressmen
and women, governors and regional bodies
to address an international audience. The US
High-Speed Rail Association was formed to
promote HSR following the announcement of
President Obamas stimulus programme.
www.ushsr.com
Other conferences
Steer Davies Gleave will also be attending the
American Public Transportation Association
(APTA) annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, from
October 4th-7th (www.apta.com) and Transport
Association of Canada (TAC) annual conference
from October 18th-21st in Vancouver BC
(www.tac-atc.ca).
Steer Davies Gleaves Boston team has
considerable expertise with HSR planning in
the US:
t Since 1998 we have served as an
independent consultant to the USDOT
Ofce of Inspector General (OIG),
providing an objective and independent
evaluation of Amtraks annual strategic
business plans, and examining ridership
and revenue forecasts for the Acela
service in the Northeast Corridor;
t For the USDOT OIG, we conducted critical
reviews of ridership and revenue forecasts
in all of the ofcially-designated HSR
corridors;
t We worked extensively on ridership
and revenue forecasts for the proposed
California HSR system between San
Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and
Sacramento;
t We were part of a multi-rm team that
examined the technical, nancial and
economic feasibility of a variety of rail
system improvements in the corridor
between New York City, Albany and
Buffalo;
t We have reviewed ridership forecasts for
the privately-proposed DesertXpress HSR
service between Las Vegas, Nevada and
Victorville, California;
t We are preparing ridership and revenue
forecasts for a proposed high-speed
ground transportation service between
Atlanta, Georgia and Chattanooga,
Tennessee.
Steer Davies Gleaves broader company
experience complements this expertise with
unparalleled international experience in HSR
and intercity passenger rail. This includes:
t For Network Rail, owner and operator of
Britains rail infrastructure, we led the
development of a strategic business case
for new high-speed lines in the UK.
11
t For RENFE, operator of the Madrid-
Barcelona high-speed rail line, we have
prepared demand forecasts, nancial
and economic results for several
operational and commercial scenarios,
and recommendations on RENFEs overall
strategy. RENFE opened the line in 2008,
following many of our recommendations;
t For NTV (Nuovo Treno Viaggiatori), a new
Italian open access rail company, we
have been involved in project conception,
development and nancing. We are
currently advising on procurement and
start-up operations.
t For the European Commission (EC), we
investigated the ways in which rail and air
travel could work together and compete
with each other. The Frankfurt and Paris
CGD airports, for example, are served
by long-distance HSR lines, providing
the potential for rail and air services to
complement each other.
t The EC has since asked us to conduct
an impact analysis of approaches to
liberalization of passenger rail services
across Europe. We produced 25 country
overviews summarizing existing
legislation and regulations governing each
national passenger rail industry.
These are exciting times for HSR in the US,
and a group consisting of HSR experts from
Steer Davies Gleaves Boston and London
ofces is at the forefront of helping our clients
progress the debate, planning and delivery in
this area.
To nd out more or to discuss further
contact Masroor Hasan
e masroor.hasan@sdgworld.net
Steer Davies Gleave also recently organized
the hugely successful HSR Summit in London.
Hosted by UK Transport Secretary Lord Andrew
Adonis, the Summit featured the very best
international speakers on high-speed rail. See
back page to nd out how to order a DVD of
the conference.
Our locations
Masroor Hasan
Associate
Masroor is an Associate
with nearly a decade of
consulting experience
specializing in travel demand forecasting
and transportation systems planning and
evaluation. He was also a faculty member
for three years at the Civil Engineering
Department of Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology. Masroor was
part of the transportation planning group of
Charles River Associates that was recently
acquired by Steer Davies Gleave.
What made you decide to work in
transportation consultancy?
I was doing Graduate Studies in
Transportation in USA. My options were
to go back home to Bangladesh and
continue teaching or work in the States as
a Transportation Consultant (I was always
intrigued/fascinated by consultancy as my
father had a construction/consulting rm).
I ended up staying in USA, so the choice of
career was obvious.
What is the best thing about your job?
The practical and day-to-day applications/
implications that it brings. I feel my job
allows me to have a positive impact on other
peoples lives.
What do you think is the biggest
challenge facing the transportation
industry?
Coming up with a viable and sustainable
funding mechanism to meet the ever-
increasing transportation needs.
What is the most exciting or bizarre
mode of transport youve ever been on?
The most exciting has to be jet ski and the
most bizarre cow driven cart.
What would you do if you werent
working in transportation?
I would try to be a professional cricket player.
What couldnt you live without?
My family.
What is the best advice you have
ever received?
If you dont know something dont hesitate to
admit it, and then work to nd out about it.
Staff prole
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About us
Steer Davies Gleave is a leading
independent transportation consultancy
providing services to government,
operators, regulators, promoters,
nanciers and other interest groups.
Founded 30 years ago and with more
than 400 consultants worldwide,
we have an unparalleled breadth of
specialist expertise available for our
clients. We welcome the opportunity for
an informal discussion on prospective
consulting assignments. Contact us at
sdginfo@sdgworld.net or visit
www.steerdaviesgleave.com
HSR Summit
Attended by over 260 delegates, the HSR Summit proved to be a
successful day of learning, debating and networking. The Summit,
hosted by the UKs Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Andrew
Adonis, showcased the very best international speakers on high-
speed rail, providing useful insights for the US HSR programme.
Given the response and feedback received, a DVD of the event
has been produced. It includes all the presentations/discussions
recorded on high quality lm including a number of interviews. The
DVD is available for just $159. This is an AMAZING offer, with money
back guarantee.
Go ahead and order your HSR Summit DVD now from
www.HSRsummit.com
www.HSRsummit.com