Today, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) released Transportation Public Finance Statistics (TPFS), for the first time. TPFS provides information on transportation-related revenue and expenditures for all levels of Government, including Federal, state, and local, and for all modes of transportation.
As seen in the chart below, funding available for transportation increased dramatically in 2022. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dedicated $90.0 billion to the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund and $28.0 billion to the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund. Those $118.0 billion in funds show up in the Highway Trust Fund and as supporting revenue in 2022.
Expenditures continued to decline in 2022, especially when adjusted for inflation. As projects move through various stages of approval and design, we expect to see an increase in expenditures from the increased spending in BIL.
Note: 2022 data includes estimates for some items
TPFS replaces the previous Government Transportation Financial Statistics (GTFS). The final GTFS was released in January 2024.
What’s new about TPFS?
Today’s TPFS release includes preliminary estimates! BTS will now release preliminary statistics each June, and the final data in December, as the new TPFS capabilities increase the timeliness of the statistics by six months. In addition to reporting preliminary estimates only 18 months after the one-year reference period (e.g., data for the 2022 reference period is published in June 2024), BTS releases final figures 24 months after the one-year reference period (e.g., data for the 2022 reference period is published December 2024).
TPFS expands upon the existing expenditures and revenues of GTFS, by including new data sources, such as the full Amtrak financials. TPFS includes additional categories to address policy questions – including expenditures broken down between capital and non-capital spending, while revenues now show user-based revenues (i.e., transit fares). TPFS also differentiates between Federal cash flows from transportation trust funds separately from general funds.
TPFS Products:
Website
Data Tabulation Tool
Download the full TPFS dataset
TPFS User Guide
TPFS Technical Documentation (Forthcoming July 2024)
TPFS Visualizations:
Revenue
Expenditure
Revenue and Expenditure