Light Rail Transport System Project

SUBJECT: Preliminary Timelines of Events Light rail systems have become common transportation channels in many cities in the United States over the past few decades. Many cities across the country have adopted light rail systems as a means of regional public transportation. Light rail systems are classified into two major categories including light cars, which are commonly known as trams, trolleys or street cars. The second category comprises multicar trains that are isolated from roadways and operate along their own right of way (Garett, 2004).

In addition to enhancing transportation, the development of light rail system is associated with some community benefits like lessening traffic congestion, reducing pollution, enhancing economic development, and job creation. Therefore, this regional transportation district would significantly benefit from increased development of light rail transportation system.

To help enhance the development of a light rail transportation system in this district, voters have just approved a mil levy (property tax) increase to fund the system that connects the current system to a commercial airport located nearly 20 miles from the urban core of the city. Funding for this system is critical toward enhancing its development given that the creation of a light rail system would help enhance transportation across the district.

Additionally, the development of such a system would help increased connectivity within the urban center of the city. Therefore, increased funding for this system is critical towards economic development of this city and the region. PROJECT MANAGEMENT The development of this light rail transportation system requires a suitable project management framework that would help in achieving the desired goals within the desired timeframe.

Project management is a critical component in this process because developing a light rail transportation system is complex, multi-faceted and involves working with different stakeholders in the transportation sector. Moreover, developing a light rail system is expensive because it requires new infrastructure and a dedicated track (nMotion, 2015). The complexities associated with developing a light rail transport system is attributable to the fact that it comprises different elements such as special vehicles, level boarding, and light rail transport stations.

These different elements work together to enhance the speed, reliability, convenience, and comfort of the transport system. As a project manager, I have identified critical steps in implementing this project of developing a light rail transportation system in the city. Each of these critical steps in the project was created using Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). PERT is utilized by project managers to examine how much time is required to complete every task and identify any dependent task (MindTools, 2016).

This information is then utilized to determine how long the entire project will last. The activities to be completed in developing this light rail transportation system and any independent tasks are shown in the Gantt Chart in Appendix A. The critical steps are shown in the Critical Path Analysis Chart in Appendix B. As shown in the Appendices, the project is expected to take approximately 243 days to complete. Project construction will account for a significant portion of this timeline i.e.

five and a half months since it’s the most critical and complex part of developing light rail transportation system. The project will commence with a project management plan and design that will be revised based on input from the relevant stakeholders in the regional transportation district.