I read an article in Time that talks about how several states are starting to lease their road infrastructure to private companies, some of which are not even U.S. owned (e.g. Cintras, a company from Spain is gobbling up contracts at a gluttonous rate).  The states are turning towards this strategy as a way to solve their degrading road problem.

Since the Feds aren’t budging on upping the gas tax (it hasn’t moved since ‘93) in order to continue feeding the US greed for oil and negligence upon the environment, the cash towards infrastructure hasn’t moved either.  And the results are becoming visible.  Most notably is the bridge collapse in Minneapolis earlier this summer but there are many other occurrences of degradation.

The way this leasing works is that the state rents out a portion of the road (usually a more lucrative portion like a beltway or bypass around a city) to a private company for x number of years.  Most of the contracts seem to pan out to 99 years. The private company pays up front billions of dollars which is what the government wants:  immediate cashatola.  In return the company is required to update and maintain the quality of the road/bridges/tunnels under their care.  The pay-off are the tolls that the company now controls and reaps.

This is not a new concept and has been done in Ontario (Route 407).  I have major issues with this (there are others but I wont’ get into them):

1.  Are we the taxpayer losing out on long term gains?  Does the $$ up front exceed the long term profits that go into the private company coffers.  Consider that the company is not even local to the country and it becomes an intriguing debate.

2.  How much influence does the government have on the road itself?  One of the benefits of the government running the show is that they will react to what the people need.  For example, if a town/city is developing new business sections or suburbs (god help us), a new exit will play a huge factor in the success of the project.  Will a privately run road respond to the need?  Will it be more costly than if it were politically initiated?

3.  The cost of the tolls are not directly controlled by the government.  They can be influenced in the contract but I’m almost certain the verbage will allow the company to increase its tolls over the years at a very profitable rate to the company.

That being said, I have mixed feelings about this.  But one thing I’d like to pull out of the discussion is the concept of the toll.  I think setting up tolls along the 401, particularly between KW and Toronto would have some serious pay-offs.   There are several problems that we have:

  • There are WAY too many cars on this stretch of road
  • In each car there are WAY too few passengers
  • There are WAY too many accidents on this stretch of road
  • We have infrastructure issues with our 400 series highways

Placing tolls on this stretch would be great to address these issues.  Yes, there would be a LOT of complaining, especially by the commuters (not by me since I only go that way maybe 10-15 times a year), but this is the shot in the arm they need to start packing their cars with passengers, or moving closer to where they work.  Either way it’s a win-win.  Don’t change your behaviour means more money to whoever runs the tolls…..which I believe should be the Government of Ontario.