A chance to better US highway system

September 26, 2008

Letter to FT.com

Sir, Robert Wright correctly points out that the vote on the Pennsylvania Turnpike toll concession will have a tremendous impact on the future of transportation finance in the US (“Toll road plan could open the way for private groups”, September 24).

The Pennsylvania legislature could seize the state's last best chance to make the turnpike whole or squander a national opportunity.

The Citi-group/Abertis deal is remarkably generous but if rebuffed in Pennsylvania, such investment will find a welcome elsewhere, most likely overseas.

Involving the private sector in the performance-based recapitalisation, maintenance, and operations of our highway system and charging realistic user fees to pay for it is the only way we are going to undo decades of inadequate investment in our infrastructure.

Despite claims to the contrary, the public sector will not do this on its own. If it could, the US would not be facing the wholesale decay of its transportation system. Both Pennsylvania and the US need courageous leadership and timely action on this issue, not dissembling and delay.

Richard G. Little,
Director,
Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy,
University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, CA, US

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f091af9a-8b64-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c,_i_email=y.html