The adoption of a strategic planning process is becoming more important to public transportation agencies as the industry faces declining subsidies and increased competition from other carriers as a result of deregulation. Valuable as strategic planning may be, processes and structures developed by and for the private sector are unsatisfactory for the public transit industry. During the past year and a half, new jersey transit corporation (nj transit) has been adapting these processes and structures for its own strategic planning efforts. In this paper is described nj transit's strategic planning process, which involves critically assessing nj transit's opportunities and threats in a market and its performance relative to competitors.These assessments are used to position nj transit's services in a matrix that recommends strategic roles and actions. Strategies and resource allocation decisions are then based on the location of services in the matrix. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1156, Transportation systems planning and management.
Abstract