Recently in Transportation Category

Source: Chris O’Malley, Indiana Business Journal, Sat. July 21 - 2007

The Indianapolis Airport Authority, which has assumed management of the city’s airports from BAA, said it paid the British firm $21 million over nearly a dozen years to bring brand-name stores and restaurants to a terminal where concessionaires long had gouged passengers.

The BAA contract unceremoniously expired on July 15, and authority officials now taking the helm for the first time since 1995 say they’re confident the millions of dollars in tuition schooled them to continue to innovate as they prepare to open a new terminal.

But those now running what was the first airport in the nation to be privately managed will have to be diligent to boost revenue, to resist the kind of government patronage alleged by BAA’s former Indianapolis director—and to stay current with peers, observers say.

........ If anything, Kish sees advantages to returning to municipal management. Besides saving an average of $1.75 million a year by not having to pay BAA management fees, municipal management removes the need for BAA oversight by the airport authority.

Source: BY SHARLONDA L. WATERHOUSE, Post-Tribune (IN), July 18, 2007

GARY -- After 20 years with Gary School Corp., Laidlaw is being given the heave-ho.

The company raised its rates, was dogged by accusations of chronic tardiness, and now has been outbid by Cincinnati, Ohio's One Button Services for the lucrative $6.8 million bus contract.

Source: Ed Brock and Brian Sedlak, American City & County, Vol. 122 no. 4, April 1, 2007

By selling public assets, local and state governments are raising funds and paying down debts without increasing taxes. The strategy was first applied to toll roads, and now parking garages and state lotteries are up for sale or lease to private investors. Asset concessions are used to bridge budget gaps while increasing or maintaining revenue from unprofitable assets.

Source: By LUCILLE HUSTON, The Review (OH), June 29, 2007

HAMMONDSVILLE — Tempers flared and criticism was leveled at the Edison Local Board of Education during its meeting Thursday night. The cafeteria was full of OAPSE/AFSCME union members from throughout the State of Ohio, including the Ohio president from Girard in Trumbull County and a union representative from Columbus.

The reason for the criticism and discontent was the board’s plan to contract bus services to a private company.

……[Fred McGraw] also cited a report from a Kent State University professor concerning a study on contracting bus services. He claimed the district would have a loss of control, a higher costs, dissatisfaction because problems experienced by parents and students would not go directly to the school and because there would be hidden costs.

In some districts, he said the private companies attempt to purchase fuel through the school because it is tax free, and added that this is illegal as some have discovered.

Source: By MIKE BRASSFIELD AND STEVE BOUSQUET, St Petersburg Times, June 21, 2007

Citing the Suncoast Parkway as an example of a useful toll road, Gov. Charlie Crist has signed a bill smoothing the way for the state and private companies to build more tollways in the decades to come.

....... "The day we privatize our public roads and turn them over to private companies is the day we start selling this great state off, " said Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Wilton Manors. "It's going to be a big mistake."

Source: By Brad Bumsted, Pittsburgh Tribune Review (PA), Wednesday, June 20, 2007

In an effort to save 2,000 jobs at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, members of the Teamsters Union fanned out Tuesday at the Capitol to lobby against Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed lease of the turnpike to a private company.

Source: By Matt Sundeen, State Legislatures (subscription required), May 2007

...... The monetization of transportation assets—commonly referred to as privatization agreements, public-private partnerships, or more simply as P3s—is attracting a lot of attention as lawmakers grapple with concerns about a lack of resources for transportation.

“It allowed us to pay for our entire 10-year transportation plan,” says Indiana Senator Tom Wyss about a 2006 agreement to privatize the Indiana Toll Road. “Other states wish they could have the same thing,” he says.

But the concept has as many critics as supporters. “It’s a state yard-sale,” counters New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski of a proposal to privatize several toll roads in his state. “Roads are a state asset that give people freedom of movement and are essential to national security. They want to turn it over to a private entity that’s in it for the money, not the public interest,” says Wisniewski, who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Source: BY TAMARA AUDI, Detroit FREE PRESS (MI), June 1, 2007

The president of Detroit's City Council said Thursday the city would have to "give serious consideration" to a surprise, $60-million bid from a private equity firm to lease the U.S. portion of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. The bid came weeks after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick publicly outlined a plan to plug the city's yawning budget gap by leasing the tunnel to the City of Windsor for an up-front payment of $58 million after fees and expenses.

Source: Sherry Anne Rubiano, The Arizona Republic, May. 25, 2007 08:28 AM

........ The Dysart Unified School District will begin running its own buses June 11, the first day for summer school activities, and will begin its full-scale operations when school starts in the fall. That means district-employed bus drivers and district-owned buses will be in charge of student transportation, rather than an outside provider.

Durham School Services had operated the school's transportation system for years. But problems with buses not running on schedule and incorrect pick-up and drop-off points prompted the change.

Source: By Tom Hester Jr., Associated Press (NJ), May 24, 2007

New Jersey is leaning toward annually increasing tolls on some of the nation's busiest toll roads to help lure investors who would provide as much as $15 billion to help the state cut debt and pay for unmet needs, a state senator said yesterday.

…. On Tuesday, Corzine said that he expected to unveil a plan in about two weeks, but that it probably wouldn't involve leasing a toll road to a private company as Indiana and Chicago have done and Pennsylvania is considering. Instead, the governor said, he expected that the plan would involve creating a new state agency that would retain state control over assets. He wouldn't elaborate.