Many years ago, I found an excellent resource for transit modelling: slides from a series of 2006-2009 workshops held by the US Federal Transit Administration (FTA) advising agencies applying for federal funding for rapid transit construction under the “New Starts” funding program. It’s very deeply buried on their website, and since then I’ve seen very few people reference this material, nor have I seen it assembled into a formal report.
So, for those interested – I’ve pulled together an easier-to-use table of contents to the three separate workshops, and tried to “deep link” into them to make it easier to browse and find the material. Enjoy!
UPDATE April 2016 – FTA has reorganized their website and the reports are no longer available there. I’ve mirrored everything here on my website.

2006 Workshop

Workshop held in June 2006 in Minneapolis.

1. Introduction
2. “Allowances” in Benefits and Cost-Effectiveness
   • supporting report
3. Benefits from Changes in Other Transit Attributes
4. Evaluation of Highway Congestion Relief Benefits
   • supporting report
5. Mobility Benefits from Variable Trip Tables
   • supporting report
   • extra material
6. Mobility Benefits from Variable Trip Ends
   • supporting report
7. Predicted and Actual Ridership on New Starts Projects
   • supporting report
8. Library of Survey Data for Quality Control on Forecasts for New Starts Projects
   • supporting report
9. CTPP-based Aggregate Model
   • supporting report
10. Semi-independent Forecasts
    • supporting report
11. Additional Measures for Quality Control of New Starts Forecasts
    • supporting report
12. Summit Update
    • supporting report
    • extra material
13. Early Quality-of-Service Analysis of the Alternatives
14. Dealing with Uncertainties in New Starts Forecasts
15. Tracking the Accuracy of Transit Forecasts
16. Properties of Travel Models for New Starts Forecasting
17. Calibration and Validation
    • supporting report
18. Methods for Transit Data Collection
    • supporting report
19. Preservation and Analysis of New Starts Travel Forecasts
    • supporting report

2007 Workshop

Workshop held in September 2007 in St. Louis, MI.

1. Welcome
2. Status Report
3. Properties of Models
4. Data Collection
5. Calibration/Validation
   • Network Design/Testing with APC Data (Portland Metro)
   • Pathbuilder Calibration with Data on Ridership Patterns (Bill Woodford, AECOM)
   • Mode Choice Calibration with Data on Ridership Patterns (Bill Davidson, Parsons Brinckerhoff)
6. Standard Reporting/QC
7. Lifting the Cap
8. CTPP-Based QC Forecasts
• ARRF Applications (Dave Schmitt, AECOM)
• Applications in Milwaukee, Kansas City, and St. Louis (Yasasvi Popuri, Cambridge Systematics)
9. Alternative-Specific Effects
   • BRT and Path Choice with an Older Pathbuilder (Jeffrey M. Bruggeman, AECOM)
   • Isolation of Trips and Travel Time on a Project in a Multipath Environment (Jennifer John, TriMet)
   • ASEs for the New Britain-Hartford Busway (Capital Region COG)
10. Uncertainty Analysis
11. Before-After Studies
12. Performance Tracking
13. Transit Path Choices
    • Path Choice with Substantial Reliance on Discrete-Choice Models (Bill Davidson, Parsons Brinckerhoff)
    • Path Choice with Principal Reliance on Networks and Path-builders (Bill Woodford, AECOM)
    • Transit Path-Building: “To Multipath or Not to Multipath” – The Denver Experience (David Kurth, Cambridge Systematics)
14. Telling a Good Story
15. Economic Development
16. Wrap-Up

2009 Workshop

Held in March 2009 in Phoenix, AZ and Tampa, FL.

Day 1: Summit Training

1. Summit: Introduction
2. Summit: Analytical Reporting
3. Summit: Summit Basics
4. Summit: User Benefits
5. Summit Examples

Day 2: Workshop

1. Welcome
2. Lessons Learned, 2003-2008
3. Guidance
4. Data on Ridership Patterns – Collection Methods
5. Data on Ridership Patterns – Some Examples
   • Pilot Tests for 2008 On-Board Survey in Columbus, Ohio (Dave Schmitt, AECOM)
   • Ancillary Counts for 2008 Tri-Rail On-Board Survey in Florida
   • Quality Control Checks for 2007 DART On-Board Survey (Arash Mirzaei, NCTCOG)
   • Planning for 2008 On-Board Surveys in Fort Worth and Denton(Arash Mirzaei, NCTOG)
6. The ARRF II Model
7. Model Testing – Methods
8. Model Testing – Some Examples
   • Model Testing with 2007 Tri-Rail On-Board Survey Data (David Schmitt, AECOM)
   • Pathbuilder Tests Using 2007 DART On-Board Survey (Arash Mirzaei, NCTOG)
9. Analytical Support of Cases for Projects
10. Uncertainty Analysis
    • Uncertainties in Honolulu (Bill Davidson, PB)
11. Before-and-After Studies – Methods
12. Before-and-After Studies – Examples
    • Before-and-After Study for Interstate MAX LRT in Portland
    • Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link (Bill Woodford, AECOM)
    • Charlotte South Corridor LRT (Bill Woodford, AECOM)
13. Simplified Methods for Small Starts
14. Current Research
15. Wrap-Up