Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Public-Private Partnerships

Defining the ‘Public’ in Public-Private Partnerships

By Elana Schor | Jan 22, 2010 | No Comments

In a must-read piece for the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), Matt Lewis digs deeper into the network of cities and towns that employ D.C. transportation. He begins with a thought-provoking anecdote: A ribbon-cutting in Dubuque, IA, for IBM’s new tech center. (Photo: Gazette) Last September, city fathers in Dubuque, Iowa, lured three members of […]

Carlyle Group’s New Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership: Donuts

By Elana Schor | Nov 20, 2009 | 1 Comment

As the federal deficit squeezes the Obama administration’s options for financing ambitious new infrastructure projects, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are gaining currency as a possible solution. And in an illustration of PPPs’ potential, the $86 billion private-equity firm Carlyle Group yesterday struck a deal with the state of Connecticut to run … 23 highway rest stops. […]

Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express, and the Future of Privately Run Transit

By Elana Schor | Nov 4, 2009 | 2 Comments

Virginia Railway Express (VRE), the commuter network that links northwest Virginia to Washington D.C., today refused a challenge by Amtrak to its decision to switch operating providers to the U.S. arm of Keolis, a private French transit company. Chicago’s earliest rail transit line, pictured here, was run by a private company. (Photo: Franzosenbusch Project) Although […]

Transit Outsourcing Booms — But Are There Safety Trade-offs?

By Elana Schor | Jul 13, 2009 | 1 Comment

New Orleans streetcars, such as the one pictured above, are about to be outsourced to a private French company. (Photo: NYT) The Wall Street Journal reports today on the growing number of cities around the country that are in talks to outsource local transit systems to cope with the budgetary pressures of the recession. New […]