Talking Headways Podcast: Giving Away TIGER and Transit Money to Wall Street

This week Beth Osborne of T4America and Kevin DeGood of The Center for American Progress join us to discuss infrastructure and the new administration. We talk about the budget process — “skinny” or “thick”? — the possible benefits and drawbacks of public-private partnerships, and the difference between funding and financing.

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Virginia's HOT lanes were held up in the U.S. Senate this week as an example of public-private partnerships done right. But is this what you really want out of the transportation system? Image: VDOT Office of Public-Private Partnerships

Public-Private Partnerships Will Not Save U.S. Infrastructure

By Stephen Miller | May 17, 2017

A panel of experts told Congress that, even with perfectly executed public-private partnerships, the federal government still needs to provide its own support -- especially for projects, like transit lines, that aren't guaranteed to generate toll revenue for profit-seeking investors.

Talking Headways Podcast: A Better Measuring Stick for Transportation

By Jeff Wood | Jun 6, 2016

Kevin DeGood of the Center for American Progress and Deron Lovaas of NRDC join the podcast this week to talk about rules proposed by U.S. DOT to measure congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. These rules matter because they’ll create new feedback loops for transportation agencies — the feds can create incentives to reduce car trips and carbon pollution if […]

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

By Elana Schor | Nov 4, 2009

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 […]

Five Factors That Will Determine Whether TIFIA Benefits Transit

By Phineas Baxandall | Oct 16, 2012

Phineas Baxandall is a senior analyst at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood touted his department’s $545.9 million TIFIA loan to construct Los Angeles’ 8.5-mile light rail transit line along the Crenshaw corridor as “just one example of how DOT’s TIFIA credit assistance program extends the value of America’s transportation dollar.” But will […]

Will Democrats Fall for Trump’s Fake Infrastructure Plan?

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 10, 2018

The early signs are not encouraging.

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

By Elana Schor | Nov 20, 2009

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. […]