An Overview of the Federal Transit Administration's Bus Testing Program

The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute (PTI) operates the Bus Testing and Research Center for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). The objective of this paper is to present a summary of important findings during the first eight years of Center operation. This paper presents an overview of the test procedures and a descriptive matrix of vehicles submitted for testing. A summary of test results is provided, which includes a distribution of failures classified by severity and subsystem type. The paper briefly describes the developmental status of including brake performance and emissions testing as well as future plans for the implementation of electric and hybrid-electric bus testing.