transparent spacersidebar Transit Vehicle - Demand ResponseTransit Vehicle - TrolleybusTransit Vehicle - Heavy RailTransit OfficersFacilities - TracksFacilities - Turnstilespacer
Welcome to the National Transit Database

Today the transit industry consists of over 140,000 vehicles, traveling over 48 billion passenger miles, and collecting over $8.5 billion in passenger fares. In the past 10 years the transit industry has grown by over 20 percent - faster than either highway or air travel. As the industry continues to grow, every indication is that the NTD will continue to expand both in scope and use in the years to come.

What is the NTD Program?
     Overview
     The NTD Process
     The NTD Products
     How The Data is Used

History of the NTD and Transit in the U.S.

How to Obtain an NTD ID Number

Overview of NTD Internet Reporting System Forms

What is the NTD Program?
The National Transit Database (NTD) is the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA's) primary national database for statistics on the transit industry. Recipients of FTA Urbanized Area Formula Program (§ 5307) and Nonurbanized Area Formula Program (§ 5311) are required by statute to submit data to the NTD. Over 650 transit agencies and authorities file annual reports to FTA through the internet-based reporting system. Each year, NTD performance data are used to apportion over $4 billion of FTA funds to transit agencies in urbanized areas (UZAs). Annual NTD reports are submitted to Congress summarizing transit service and safety data.
The NTD is the system through which FTA collects uniform data needed by the Secretary of Transportation to administer department programs. The data consist of selected financial and operating data that describe public transportation characteristics. The legislative requirement for the NTD is found in Title 49 U.S.C. 5335(a):

Section 5335

(a) NATIONAL TRANSIT DATABASE - To help meet the needs of individual public transportation systems, the United States Government, State and local governments, and the public for information on which to base public transportation service planning, the Secretary of Transportation shall maintain a reporting system, using uniform categories to accumulate public transportation financial and operating information and using a uniform system of accounts. The reporting and uniform systems shall contain appropriate information to help any level of government make a public sector investment decision. The Secretary may request and receive appropriate information from any source.

(b) REPORTING AND UNIFORM SYSTEMS - The Secretary may award a grant under § 5307 or § 5311 only if the applicant, and any person that will receive benefits directly from the grant, are subject to the reporting and uniform systems.

New Funding for Agencies Serving Urbanized Areas under 200,000 Population
The NTD data are also used in the formula allocations of Federal transit funds. Prior to the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), only NTD data for urbanized areas with populations of 200,000 or more were used. With the passage of SAFETEA-LU, NTD data for urbanized areas with fewer than 200,000 population are also used in the allocation of Federal transit funding.

SAFETEA-LU directs that there be a one percent takedown from the funds made available under § 5307. This takedown amount will be for apportionment under the new Small Transit Intensive Cities (STIC) formula. Under the formula for STIC, funds are apportioned to UZAs with a population less than 200,000 that meet or exceed the average level of service for all UZAs with populations between 200,000 and 1,000,000.

SAFETEA-LU also establishes new Growing States and High Density States formula factors (§ 5340) to distribute funds to the § 5307 and § 5311 programs. One-half of the funds are made available under the Growing States factors and are apportioned by a formula based on State population forecasts for 15 years beyond the most recent Census. Amounts apportioned for each State are then distributed between UZAs and nonurbanzied areas based on the ratio of urbanized / nonurbanzied population within each State. The High Density States factors distribute the other half of the funds to States with population densities in excess of 370 persons per square mile. These funds are apportioned only to UZAs within those States.

For more information on SAFETEA-LU, contact your regional administrator or go to www.fta.dot.gov.

Overview
The National Transit Database (NTD) is the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) national database of statistics for the transit industry. The NTD is comprised of data reported by more than 600 transit agencies across the US, which is then analyzed and compiled into reports published by FTA and made available to the public on the NTD Program website.

The database includes all modes of public transportation utilized on local and regional routes throughout the country, including private and public buses, heavy and light rail, ferryboats and vanpool service, as well as services for senior citizens and persons with disabilities, and taxi services operated under contract to a public transportation agency.

To present a clear and detailed view of the nationwide state of transit a lot of information must be collected. This is the job of the transit reporters, who usually fall into one of three groups: transit agencies, providers of purchased transportation services, and voluntary reporters. The types of data reported include:
• Operational Characteristics - Vehicle revenue hours and miles, unlinked passenger trips and passenger miles, etc.
• Service Characteristics - Service reliability and safety, etc.
• Capital Revenues and Assets - Sources and uses of capital, fleet size and age, and fixed guideways, etc.
• Financial Operating Statistics - Revenues, Federal, state and local funding, costs, etc.
In recent years the NTD has grown to include safety, security, and rural transportation data.

The NTD Process
Move your cursor over the pictures in the graphic below to follow the NTD process.

NTD Process The NTD reporting process begins with the NTD reporting manual, which is updated annually. The Reporting Manual contains in-depth, form-by-form and line-by-line instructions on how to report data to NTD and serves as the basis for improvements to the Internet Reporting system. The Internet Reporting system is FTA's online report submission and data validation tool utilized by the reporting agencies to submit their NTD data. FTA / NTD also conducts "in-house" training sessions for small groups of transit reporters, annual reporting seminars for transit agency personnel and validation analyst training for in-house staff. Data is collected and submitted to the NTD via the Internet Reporting system. The data is subjected to an extensive review and validation process. Upon Closeout for the report year, the database is finalized and the data for the apportionment is delivered. FTA uses NTD data to allocate over $3 billion of federal funds to transit agencies nationwide, through the Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Grant Program, and another $1 billion in funding through the Section 5309 Fixed Guideway Modernization Program, which provides funding for fixed guideway modernization projects.

The NTD Products
FTA disseminates the data collected each report year. To tailor the data to the needs of the congress, other federal agencies / departments, the reporting agencies and the general pubic the NTD produces several publications, including:
•Transit Profiles - This is a "snapshot" view of a transit agency's data for a given report year. The most important service, financial, operational and modal data presented on a single page, including graphs to show relational data and performance trends from prior years' data. A profile is produced for each transit agency, as well as a national summary profile and an aggregate profile for the top 50 agencies.Sample Profile
•Data Tables - The purpose of the data tables is to present data across all transit agencies. There are currently 27 data tables produced, ranging from Operators' Wages to Energy Consumption to Age Distribution of Active Revenue Vehicle Inventory. Sample page of a Data Table
•National Transit Summaries and Trends - This publication is similar to the data tables, in that it presents "types" of data, but instead of presenting individual agencies' data for the year, it looks at the national summary data, across prior years, to present trends over the past decade. The trends and summaries examined include: Sample page from the NTST
 
•
Transit in the United States
 
•
Operating Costs and Performance Measures
 
•
Quality of Transit Service
 
•
Reliability
 
•
ADA Compliance
 
•
Funding Transit Operations
 
•
Capital Investment in Transit
 
•
Bus Fleet
 
•
Fixed Guideway Mileage
 
•
Alternative Fuel Usage.
 In addition, aggregate data by UZA and by form is included.

The publications and reports produced by NTD are posted on the NTD website (www.ntdprogram.gov), for download. The NTD website includes prior years' publications as well.

In addition to the publications listed above, NTD produces several other products, including:
•
Apportionment dataset (UAF 5307 & FG 5309)
•
GPRA performance measures
•
ADA compliance data
•
Infrastructure data for Conditions and Performance Report
•
Manuals: Reporting, Validation, Safety and Security, Rural.
Back to top

How The Data is Used
Many federal and state government departments and agencies, universities and research centers, and international studies also make use of NTD data. In addition, transit agencies themselves look at performance measures, historical trends, and conduct special analyses utilizing published NTD data.

How the data we collect is used:
•
Formulation of National Policy
•
Federal: BTS, DOE, EPA, DOL, DOC, FHWA
•
State and regional planning and investment
•
APTA Data Book
•
Special analyses: HOT lanes, fleet age
•
Research
•
Private sector (vehicle manufacturers and OEMs).

Examples of NTD data usage:

Example one of NTD data usage    Example three of NTD data usage

Example two of NTD data usage

Back to top

History of the NTD and Transit in the US

1630

Reputed first publicly operated ferryboat (Boston, MA)

1740

Reputed first use of ox carts for carrying of passengers (New York, NY)

1811

First mechanically operated (steam-powered) ferryboat (New York, NY)

1827

Horse-drawn omnibus begins service along Broadway (New York, NY)

1830

First railroad (Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co.) (Baltimore, MD)

1832

First streetcar in America; horse-drawn rail cars begin service along the Bowery (New York, NY)

1835

Oldest street railway line still operating (New Orleans & Carrollton line) (New Orleans, LA)

1838

First commuter fares on a railroad (Boston & West Worcester Railroad) (Boston, MA)

1856

First fare-free promotion (Boston, MA)

1863

First subway in the world; trains hauled by steam engines begin service (London, England)

1868

First cable-powered (and first elevated) line (West Side & Yonkers Patent Railway) (New York, NY)

1870

First pneumatic-powered (and first underground) line (Beach Pneumatic Railroad Co.) (New York, NY)

1871

First steam-powered elevated line (New York Elevated Railroad Co.) (New York, NY)

1873

First cable car in the world runs up Clay Street (San Francisco, CA)

1883

First publicly operated cable-powered line (Brooklyn Bridge) (New York, NY)

1884

First electric street railway line (East Cleveland Street Railway) (Cleveland, OH)

1886

First semi-successful citywide street railway transit agency (Capital City Street Railway Co.) (Montgomery, AL)

1888

First successful electric street railway (Richmond, VA)

1893

First interurban rail line (East Side Railway Co.) (Portland, OR)

1895

First electric elevated rail line (Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway) (Chicago, IL)

1897

First American subway (Boston, MA)

1897

First publicly-financed public transportation facility (street railway tunnel) (Boston, MA)

1898

First electric multiple-unit controlled rail line (Chicago & South Side Rapid Transit Railroad Co.) (Chicago, IL)

1904

First state-operated street railway (State of North Dakota Capital Car Line) (Bismarck, ND)

1904

New York's first subway (New York, NY)

1905

First American gasoline-powered buses begin running on Fifth Avenue (New York, NY)

1906

First municipal street railway (Monroe, LA)

1908

First interstate underground heavy rail line (Hudson & Manhattan Railroad to New Jersey) (New York, NY)

1910

First trolleybus line (Laurel Canyon Utilities Co.) (Hollywood, CA)

1912

First publicly operated street railway in a large city (San Francisco Municipal Railway) (San Francisco, CA)

1912

First street railway to operate buses (Cleveland Railway) (Cleveland, OH)

1914

First jitney (Los Angeles, CA)

1916

First public bus-only transit agency (St. Louis Division of Parks and Recreation Municipal Auto Bus Service) (St. Louis, MO)

1921

First successful trolleybus line (New York, NY)

1923

First cities to replace all streetcars with buses - Bay City, MI; Everett, WA; Newburgh, NY

1926

Except for the years of the Second Word War, transit patronage in America reaches its all-time high of 17.3 billion riders

1927

First automobile park and ride lot and first bus-rail transfer facility for a non-commuter rail line (Philadelphia, PA)

1932

First publicly operated heavy rail line (Independent Subway) (New York, NY)

1933

First large city to replace all streetcars with buses (San Antonio, TX)

1936

First industry-developed standardized street railway car (P.C.C. car) (Brooklyn & Queens Transit System) (New York, NY)

1936

Large scale federal assistance for mass transit begins under the aegis of the US Public Works Administration

1938

First use of federal capital funding to build a public transportation rail line (Chicago, IL)

1939

First street with designated bus lane (Chicago, IL)

1940

First time bus ridership exceeded street railway ridership

1940

San Francisco, CA becomes last surviving cable car transit agency

1943

First rail line in expressway median (Pacific Electric Railway) (Los Angeles, CA)

1946

With war-related travel conditions still prevailing, US transit patronage reaches 23.5 billion riders, its absolute all-time high.

1952

Last new PCC car for US transit agency placed in service (San Francisco, CA)

1958

Passage of federal legislation removes any state role in allowing private railroads to discontinue commuter passenger service and vests all such authority with the ICC; enactment of this law widely regarded as single most important development leading to the current program of federal transit assistance

1961

First significant federal public transportation legislation (Housing & Urban Development Act of 1961) (Washington, DC)

1962

First monorail (Seattle World's Fair) (Seattle, WA)

1962

First automated heavy rail line (Grand Central Shuttle) (New York, NY)

1963

Chicago becomes last surviving city with interurban line (Chicago, South Shore, & South Bend Railroad)

1964

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 (UMTA) that provides $375 million in transit capital assistance over three years

1966

First re-authorization of transit assistance program

1966

First public takeover of commuter railroad (Long Island Rail Road Co.) (New York, NY)

1966

First statewide transit agency (Rhode Island Public Transit Authority) (Providence, RI)

1968

First downtown transit mall (Nicollet Mall) (Minneapolis, MN)

1968

First rail station at an airport opened (Cleveland, OH)

1969

First transitway (Shirley Highway) (Washington, DC)

1969

First modern heavy rail transit agency replacing former rail line (Port Authority Transit Corporation) (Philadelphia, PA)

1970

First dial-a-ride demand response transit agency (Fort Walton Beach, FL)

1970

Ten-year re-authorization enacted

1971

First federally subsidized intercity passenger railroad (AMTRAK) (Washington, DC)

1972

First computer-controlled heavy rail transit agency (Bay Area Rapid Transit District) (San Francisco, CA)

1972

Project FARE (Financial Accounting and Reporting Elements)

1973

First "billion dollar year" for federal mass transit assistance program

1973

Interstate Transfer enacted as part of a re-authorization of the federal highway program

1973

Some public transportation service required to be accessible to disabled (Rehabilitation Act of 1973) (Washington, DC)

1973

Boston, MA; Dayton, OH; Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco, CA; and Seattle, WA -- Last surviving trolleybus systems

1974

Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) Act amended to add § 15 requirements, or Uniform System of Accounts (USOA) and Reporting System

1974

Last street railway systems - Boston, MA; Cleveland, OH; Newark, NJ; New Orleans, LA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; and San Francisco, CA

1975

First automated guideway transit agency (West Virginia University) (Morgantown, WV)

1976

First "two billion dollar year" for transit assistance program

1976

First link in Washington Metrorail system opens for service (Washington, DC)

1977

First wheelchair-lift-equipped fixed-route bus (San Diego, CA)

1978

ST Act requires all § 5307 recipients to file a § 15 (NTD) report

1978

First "three billion dollar year" for transit assistance program

1979

First standardized public transportation data accounting system (§ 15) (Washington, DC)

1980

First completely new light rail transit agency in decades (San Diego Trolley) (San Diego, CA)

1981

First § 15 (NTD) report published, based on 1979 data; Program administered in TRI; FTA (UMTA) analysts prepare § 15 reports internally

1981

First "four billion dollar year" for transit assistance program

1982

STA Act, NTD data used in formula to apportion funds

1983

Extensive structural change to simplify reporting

1983

Public transportation trust fund for capital projects created thru dedication of one cent of federal gas tax (Washington, DC)

1987

Federal transit assistance program re-authorized

1989

First completely new commuter rail transit agency in decades (Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority) (Miami, FL)

1989 - 1991

§ 15 restructuring and simplification; TRB/FTA Advisory Committee, data reporting requirements are reduced

1990

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) signed into law - July 26

1991

Public transportation buses subject to strict pollution controls (Clean Air Act of 1990) (Washington, DC)

1991

First general authorization of use of highway funds for public transportation under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) (Washington, DC)

1992

Federal transit and highway program jointly re-authorized and given its own "penny" from a five-cent increase in the Federal motor fuel tax; initial use of highway trust fund money for mass transit

1993

Final Rule on Restructuring; Diskette reporting replaces paper forms

1993

Major streamlining of program under aegis of "reinventing government," more multiyear grants 1998 awarded to build new rail transit systems than during any comparable period in the history of the Federal transit assistance program

1994

Publication of revised Uniform System of Accounts (USOA)

1995

Security reporting added for systems in UZAs > 200K; § 15 renamed National Transit Database (NTD)

1995

1.5 cents dedicated portion of federal fuel tax increased to 2 cents (Washington, DC)

1998

Major expansion and restructuring of federal public transportation program under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (Washington, DC)

1998

National Economic Crossroads Transportation Efficiency Act (NEXTEA)

1999 - 2000

Congress inserts language to enhance NTD Safety and Security reporting

2000

Delivered report to Congress on redesign of NTD

2002Initiated monthly Safety, Security and Ridership data reporting under redesigned NTD

2002

Launched new Annual NTD software with pre-submission validation routines

2005Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) authorizes funds for all of the surface transportation programs of the Department of Transportation (FYs 2005 through 2009)

Back to top

Last updated: 08/02/2007

Privacy Notice

Internet Reporting Login