Benefit-Cost Analysis for Virginia rail investments

Virginia’s Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) is responsible for the Commonwealth’s Rail Enhancement Fund (REF), a grant program for passenger and freight rail infrastructure development. Applicants are required to demonstrate the economic benefits of their proposed investments using a Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA).

How we helped

Steer was tasked with developing a BCA framework and modeling tool for DRPT that would be used by all applicants to the REF program. The tool we developed included the functionality to estimate various benefits, including congestion relief (travel time savings), safety improvements, environmental benefits of reduced emissions, wider economic benefits on productivity, and freight shipping cost reductions from reduced mileage and/or economies of scale.

Steer’s BCA model and framework also included the capability to evaluate “state-of-good repair” investments, increasingly of concern for transportation agencies in the United States.

Successes and outcomes

Virginia’s Department of Rail and Public Transportation is employing the evaluation framework to evaluate the benefit-cost ratio of applicants to the REF grants.