Performance Measurement of U.S. Transit Systems, 1982-2001

Progressive total factor productivity changes of U.S. transit systems are examined in this paper using non-parametric frontier techniques. Farrell's measure or single period efficiency measures for 1982-2001 were applied to the first part of the analysis. Then the panel data had the Malmquist productivity index applied to it, and, for the period 1982 to 2001 for transit systems, the total factor productivity growth was partitioned into technical efficiency change and technological progress. There can be further partitioning of the efficiency measure into scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency, as the analysis gives, since there is application of variable return to scale. That analysis results revealed that transit system average loss was .10 percent for the sample, with the decline attributed to efficiency, was available through empirical results applying the Malmquist productivity index.