The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) was established in 1992 to provide a continuing program of applied research on transit issues. The program is sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and carried out under a three-way agreement among the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (the Academies), acting through its Transportation Research Board (TRB); the Transit Development Corporation, an educational and research arm of the American Public Transit Association (APTA); and the FTA.

 

TCRP focuses on issues significant to the public transportation industry, with emphasis on developing near-term research solutions to a variety of transit problems, involving facilities, vehicles, equipment, service concepts, operations, policy, planning, human resources, maintenance, and administrative practices. Thus, research agencies for TCRP are required to report their results in a form that succinctly summarizes the findings in language that is understandable to transit managers, professionals, and administrators. In addition to publication, measures are taken to ensure that useful research results are made immediately available to appropriate personnel through TRB’s distribution system.

 

Further dissemination of the reports and support products is carried out according to the Dissemination Plan developed by APTA under TCRP Project J-1, “Dissemination and Implementation of TCRP Research Findings.” The purpose of Project J-1 is to ensure that TCRP products reach the appropriate transit industry audience, including, but not limited to, dissemination at conferences, workshops, other related venues and through the program’s website, tcrponline.org. In addition, the TCRP Ambassador Program was initiated in spring 1997 to create a network of transit professionals to represent TCRP at national, state, and local conferences. Through a competitive process, a number of transit individuals are selected each year for two-year terms as TCRP Ambassadors. They provide peer-to-peer presentations of research results at regional conferences or at selected transit agencies.The TCRP Project J-1 Panel meets periodically to review program activities, advise, and to review the project budget for each fiscal year.