The Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Transit Administration (FTA), has a continuing requirement for services to conduct Financial Capacity Assessments and Financial Assessments for New Starts and Small Starts projects.

The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) stipulates that the Secretary of Transportation must make a number of determinations before a grant or loan can be made for the construction of any project seeking Section 5309 New Starts funds. These determinations require that the planning process generate credible information on project costs, ridership, financing, and environmental impacts. 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53 Section 5309 contains criteria for determining whether New Start projects are eligible for funding. The Office of Planning and Environment (TPE) assesses New Starts projects to verify that requirements for eligibility for New Starts funding have been met.

TPE assesses individual projects to insure that: a) the project meets the New Starts project justification criteria; b) the project is supported by an acceptable degree of local financial commitment, including evidence of stable and dependable funding sources to construct, maintain, and operate the current system and proposed new service; and, c) that any proposed project considered for Section 5309 New Starts funds has meet all requirements for National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) processes and environmental documentation and that impacts are properly assessed, documented, and mitigated. FTA uses this information to recommend Section 5309 New Starts funds for the projects with the greatest merit.

FTA conducts two types of financial reviews for CIG projects: Financial Assessments (FA) and Financial Capacity Assessments (FCA). The contractor shall support conduct detailed FAs and FCAs, which are defined as follows:

• An FA is a written financial assessment of a proposed CIG project that includes proposed ratings of high, medium-high, medium, medium-low, or low to three subfactors described in FTA’s guidance for the CIG program. The subfactors are current capital and operating condition; commitment of capital and operating funds; and reasonableness of capital and operating cost estimates and planning assumptions, and capital and operating funding capacity. A summary financial rating is assigned based on a combination of the individual ratings for each measure according to the weights identified in FTA’s guidance.
• An FCA is an important, time-sensitive document that supports FTA’s decision to provide a construction grant to a CIG project. An FCA includes the following elements:
  • An analysis of the project sponsor’s system-wide financial condition;
  • An analysis of the project sponsor’s system-wide financial capability;
  • Stress tests, which explore the impact on the project sponsor’s financial plan of changes in assumptions found to be of concern in the financial capability analysis;
  • An updated local financial commitment rating; and
  • The financial contractor’s assessment of the project sponsor’s ability to satisfy the financial capacity requirement for CIG funds

The Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has a requirement for services to conduct Financial Capacity Assessments and Financial Assessments for New Starts and Small Starts projects.