TAM Plans
Every agency must develop a transit asset management (TAM) plan if it owns, operates, or manages capital assets used to provide public transportation and receives federal financial assistance under 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53 as a recipient or subrecipient. Each transit provider must designate an Accountable Executive (49 CFR 625.5) to ensure appropriate resources for implementing the agency's TAM plan.
Each TAM plan should:
- Outline how people, processes, and tools come together to address asset management policy and goals
- Provide accountability and visibility for furthering understanding of leveraging asset management practices
- Support planning, budgeting, and communications to internal and external stakeholders
TAM Plan Elements
The TAM regulation (49 CFR Part 625) outlines TAM plan requirements and what elements must be included.
Tier I agencies must comply with all nine elements of the TAM plan. Tier II agencies are only responsible for the first four elements.
Am I a tier I or tier II agency?
| Tier | Element | Brief Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tier I and II | I. An inventory of asset | A register of capital assets and information about those assets. |
| 2. A condition assessment of inventoried assets | A rating of the assets' physical state; to be completed for assets an agency has direct capital responsibility for; should be at a level of detail sufficient to monitor and predict performance of inventoried assets | |
| 3. Description of a decision support tool | An analytic process or tool that (1) assists in capital asset investment prioritization and/or (2) estimates capital needs over time does not necessarily mean software | |
| 4. A prioritized list of investments | A prioritized list of projects or programs to manage or improve the SGR of capital assets | |
| Tier I only | 5. TAM and SGR policy | A TAM policy is the executive-level direction regarding expectations for transit asset management; a TAM strategy consists of the actions that support the implementation of the TAM policy |
| 6. Implementation strategy | The operational actions that a transit provider decides to conduct, in order to achieve its TAM goals and policies | |
7. List of key annual activities | The actions needed to implement a TAM plan for each year of the plan's horizon | |
| 8. Identification of resources | A summary or list of the resources, including personnel, that a provider needs to develop and carry out the TAM plan | |
| 9. Evaluation plan | An outline of how a provider will monitor, update, and evaluate, as needed, its TAM plan and related business practices, to ensure the continuous improvement |
TAM Plan Updates
Agencies are required to update their TAM plan in its entirety at least once every four years. The TAM plan update provides agencies with the ability to incorporate any changes or updates to their asset information or capital plans that occurred over the past four years. The update is also an opportunity for transit agencies to apply lessons learned, including improvements to the data collection process and aligning the plan with strategic priorities.
During the update process, transit agencies should review every element of the TAM plan and make all necessary changes to create a new TAM plan for the current horizon period. This effort may involve inter-departmental coordination to ensure that asset managers are communicating with planning and financial staff to accurately forecast state of good repair and agency needs.
Throughout the four-year horizon period for a TAM plan, a transit provider may choose to amend its TAM plan. Find more information about TAM Plan updates and amendments in this FAQ document.
Please refer to the resources at the bottom of this page for information on investment prioritization, decision support tools, and other key elements of a TAM plan.
Plan Submission Requirements
The TAM Final Rule required agencies to develop TAM plans by October 2018 and to update the TAM Plan at least every four years thereafter. FTA recommends that recipients coordinate TAM planning efforts to align, to the extent possible, with the State and MPO planning processes.
Once a TAM plan is completed or updated, it must be shared with planning partners for review and to coordinate implementation (49 CFR 625.53(b)). The completed or updated TAM plan does not need to be submitted to FTA, though the agency must maintain a record of the document and it must be available for review and as part of ongoing oversight.
In addition, each entity developing a TAM plan must report annually to FTA's National Transit Database (NTD). This submission includes: asset inventory data; condition assessments and performance results; projected targets for the next fiscal year; and a narrative report on changes in transit system conditions and the progress toward achieving previous performance targets. While there is no specific format requirement, FTA created an optional template that can be used for NTD narrative reports.
TAMPLATE
The TAM Planning Assistance Template (TAMPLATE) is provided as a tool to assist in development of TAM plans. The template can be used as a data collection tool, and the resulting TAM plan can be modified and expanded upon as desired. TAMPLATE is not a compliance tool and should only be used for technical assistance.
Group TAM Plans
Sponsors: Group TAM plans are generally sponsored by the State DOT or another agency that passes FTA funds to subrecipients. Use the Group Plan Sponsor Checklist to determine whether an organization is required to be a group TAM plan sponsor.
Participants: Tier II agencies can develop their own TAM plans or may be able to participate in a group TAM plan. Use the Group Plan Participant Checklist to determine eligibility to participate in a group plan.
The group plan option reduces the planning and reporting burden for smaller transit agencies by eliminating the requirement to develop individual plans and report independently to the NTD. The group plan uses consolidated performance targets that apply to the group of participants as a whole, rather than to individual agencies.
A group TAM plan sponsor must coordinate the development of the group TAM plan with each participant’s Accountable Executive and make the completed plan easily available to all participants and applicable planning agencies. TAMPLATE can be used as a data collection tool to consolidate information from subrecipients to produce a comprehensive plan.
The Group Plan Sponsor Workbook provides further detail on identifying participants and developing group TAM plans.
Am I required to be a group TAM plan sponsor?
Am I going to be a participant in a group TAM plan?
Resources
The following resources may be helpful when developing and updating TAM plans. These are only suggested resources; agencies can develop TAM plans to best suit their circumstances while meeting FTA’s requirements.
Visit the TAM Resource Table for a full list of available TAM resources.
- TAMPLATE
- Transit Asset Management Guide (FTA 0098)
- TAM Plan Self-Assessment Tool
- Transit Asset Management Systems Handbook
- Decision Support Tool State of the Practice
- Investment Prioritization State of the Practice
- Asset Management Guide Supplement: Asset Category Overviews & Lifecycle Management (FTA 0138)