There are options

The ever incompetent Maryland Transit Administration seems to think that there is no way for them to fund their proposed Red Line project:

New cost projections for a proposed east-west transit line across Baltimore show that the most widely favored alternatives are too expensive to qualify for federal funding, while the only clearly affordable choices are ones already rejected by City Hall.

Cost-effectiveness figures released this week by the Maryland Transit Administration for the proposed Red Line show alternatives that involve tunneling to put portions of the line underground exceed the federal standard for consideration of 50 percent funding of the project....

...All of them exceeded the figure of $24 per hour of user benefit that Federal Transit Administration uses as its cut-off line for judging the cost-effectiveness of competing transit proposals.

The two proposals involving the most tunneling - and the least potential disruption to neighborhoods - came in so far over the mark that MTA officials said it is practically impossible to fund them.

It seems like the rut that MTA and other leaders are stuck in (as usual) is the thought that the only source of revenue available to fund the project is through taxpayer dollars from both the state and federal governments. But we all know that this is exactly the kind of project that will simply waste taxpayer dollars and create enormous cost overruns.

It sounds like the exact kind of project that a private company could build for a fraction of the price it would cost the government.

If the MTA and public officials are serious about building the Red Line, they should really step back and consider their options. Privatization is the most cost effective way to get this project down, and this would be the perfect test case to be able to prove that point...

Private Ventures

Looks like NASA is starting to finally get real (H/T Instapundit)

For decades, NASA kept a tight fist around the construction and operation of the spacecraft that ferried its astronauts and hardware into orbit. Sure, an army of private contractors actually built the vehicles, but NASA oversaw the designs—and always kept the pink slips. Now, however, the agency seems to be shifting course, as NASA officials insist that the budding commercial spacecraft fleet represents the only way the United States can realize its dreams of solar-system conquest on schedule and at an affordable cost.

Because of a new focus for NASA's strategic investments—not to mention incentives like the Ansari X Prize, which spurred the space-tourism business, and the Google Lunar X Prize, which could do the same for payloads—private-sector spaceships could be ready for government service soon, says Sam Scimemi, who heads NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. "The industry has grown up," he tells PM. "It used to be that only NASA or the Air Force could do such things....."

....."I'd like for us to get to the point where we have the kind of private/public synergy in space flight that we have had for a hundred years in aviation," Griffin said. The spirit of private enterprise is crucial to the future of space exploration, he acknowledged. "I see a day in the not-very-distant future where instead of NASA buying a vehicle, we buy a ticket for our astronauts to ride to low Earth orbit, or a bill of lading for a cargo delivery to space station by a private operator. I want us to get to that point."

Hauling cargo represents the grunt work of space exploration and, dominated by the space shuttle, it has long gobbled millions of dollars of NASA's budget. The agency's new vision hands that duty off to private companies that, freed from government paperwork, can do it more economically. This would free up more of the NASA budget for space exploration missions, Scimemi says.

And this is exactly what NASA should have been doing for years. The NASA monopoly on government-backed space missions has always seemed silly particularly, as the story notes, since all of the components and crafts were being built by private contractors.

As we have seen time and time again, privatization of certain government functions gives the taxpayer more flexibility, more options, and a better product with less overhead, less bureaucracy, and lower costs. Let's just hope that NASA's newfound vision of the space program not only spreads to other agencies at the federal and (hopefully) state level, but also survives the next Presidential administration. I have a fear that such innovations will suffer under a Democratic administration....

Momentum for Privatization

Looks like other people are picking up on the idea that only privatization may be all that we can do to save our transportation infrastructure:

Free markets may be the only way to save the nation's roads and highways. They might even be the best way to save them. The Department of Transportation, under this Administration, has made no secret of its desire to lease highways to private companies, to use tolls and congestion pricing, to auction off fast access to those willing to pay and to otherwise let free markets drive transportation. Under this view, breaking up the government monopoly on transportation could lead to innovation and more choices for the public. Let those who use a resource pay for it, without burdening everyone else with the costs. Let the pain of price ease gridlock. It will reduce both fuel consumption and emissions. Heck, it might even drive down your insurance premiums.

Let us hope that we get to this point. Privatization may not be the solution for every state, nor the solution for every transportation method. But there is a pretty good chance that privatization will lead to all of the things that Marty Jerome's post suggests: innovation, consumer choice, and lower costs. And these should be concepts that all citizens, both left and right, can get behind...

More Fuel for Privatization Fire

Maybe the State of Maryland, even in our current O'Malleynomic hell, may really consider the concept of privatization:

And in the long-term, MdTA will be so saddled with debt it might even have to lease one of its facilities to a private partner, according to DLS. Over the next four years, the agency will issue $2.8 billion worth of debt to bolster its capital budget.

Now all of this is in a story about how MdTA might be ready to jack the price of tolls on the Bay Bridge up to $5.00 in the near future. But as I have argued before, the privatization of the Bay Bridge may make it cheaper for taxpayers and commuters to use the bridge, as a private toll facility operator will be able to operate the bridge at a far lower cost than the State of Maryland ever could.

Even ardent opponents of privatization don't want to see tolls doubled on MdTA facilities, and privatization may be a way to avoid that current inevitability.

Lots of Democrats and liberals talk about brining innovation to government. I can assure you that doubling tolls does not count as innovation in anyone's mind. But I think that one of the most innovate things that Maryland could do at this moment in time is to privatize our toll facilities so that we, both as commuters and as taxpayers, get the biggest bang for our buck.

Stupid Government Tricks

Good grief:

Maryland Stadium Authority chairman Frederick W. Puddester has begun discussions with legislators about creating a statewide panel to attract more sports and entertainment events to facilities around Maryland.

The authority works with a panel of businessmen to attract events to Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. But Puddester wants an inventory of all the facilities in the state and an analysis of how they might be marketed. He said he wants to see all parts of the state benefit from attracting events.

Works cannot adequately describe how silly this is, especially considering yesterday the story was all about how the MTA should be focusing on transit-oriented development.

Of course, Puddester's idea is harebrained. Should not the Stadium Authority concern itself only with facilities they own? Are they talking about a panel to push events towards non-state facilities? Is this some sort of scheme to try to take control of certain venues for the Stadium Authority? What exactly does Puddester have up his sleeve?

As usual, this seems like a poorly constructed cockamamie scheme coming from a professional bureaucrat. I've already shown my support for abolishing the Stadium Authority and privatizing the venues, but at the very least the Stadium Authority needs to stay out of the event promotion business when they are already private companies that, you know, do that sort of thing.

Privatized Transit in the Dulles Corridor?

Lots of our liberal friends criticize me for my stance on the private funding on transportation infrastructure, but it looks like such ideas are being bandied about for the construction of Metro's Northern Virginia Silver Line:

Private equity investors are drawing up proposals to partner with Virginia for a rail line to Dulles International Airport as hope fades that the federal government will help fund the 23-mile Metrorail extension.

State officials said several equity groups have expressed interest in investing in a rail since Thursday, when U.S. transportation officials declared the project unfit for federal funding. The $5 billion project had been counting on a $900 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration.

Private purchase of the rail line or the Dulles Toll Road to fund the extension would attract strong opposition from those who believe such public infrastructure is far too valuable to hand over to for-profit corporations. But with the outlook for keeping the rail project alive bleak, regional business and political leaders who are adamant that the rail line must not die are increasingly of the mind that private partnership must be considered.

"You gotta build this thing," said William D. Lecos, president of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. "So whatever contingency is fastest, bestest and quickest is good with us. We've always been supportive of the public-private concept. If that turns out now to be the contingency we can pursue, provided we can get on that course quickly and with some level of certainty, then that's what we should do."

Folks in Northern Virginia have been looking for over 25 years for a Dulles rail extension, and with the disqualification of the project from receiving federal funds, it looked liked the project may never get built. Now, with private companies in the mix, it looks like there is still hope for the project. When you consider how much of the Dulles Corridor's planning is tied into the future of this line, it remains and important project for the future of this area.

I hope that the private companies get a legitimate chance to build and operate this system. It will show, hopefully once and for all, that there can be a great public benefit to privatized transportation options in our area.

Privatization still the solution

This article from this morning's Post further reinforces the need to privatize transportation construction:

State transportation officials say Columbia's future might not include rail transit despite pleas to extend such service to the county's largest community.

Howard Del. Elizabeth Bobo (D) asked state officials last year to study whether Washington's Metro rail system or the MARC, the state's commuter rail service, could run to Columbia. But state officials have told Bobo in recent weeks that both options would cost billions over the next 30 years, a prohibitive expense. That should provide local officials with "a little dose of reality," Bobo said.

"We can't move forward thinking we're going to have [rail] transit anytime soon in downtown Columbia," Bobo said after a meeting of Maryland transportation officials in Ellicott City last week.

But they could move forward if a bid went out to private contractors to determine the costs to build such a system privately. I would be willing to be that a number of companies would be willing to build and operate a Metro, MARC, or Light Rail extension if given the opportunity to bid. The concept that a multi-billion project such as this has to be constructed using only state funds is outmoded, and leads to further traffic delays, congestion, and projects that take fifty years to complete.

As I noted last month, the privatization of such projects is the only way to make progress.