Grupo español para arrendar la carretera de peaje
A joint Spanish and American investment consortium has made the winning $12.8 billion bid on a 75-year lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, setting into motion the possible historic privatization of the nation’s oldest toll road.The proposal by New York-based Citi Infrastructure Investors and Abertis Infraestructuras of Spain, is a “slam dunk,” for Pennsylvania taxpayers because it will generate $1.1 billion a year for road and bridge repairs, as well as financial aid to struggling mass-transit agencies, Gov. Ed Rendell said today.
If approved by lawmakers, the proposed lease agreement would also render moot the state’s federal application to turn Interstate 80 into a toll road, Rendell said of the consortium’s proposal to operate the 356-mile mainline Turnpike and the 110-mile Northeast Extension.
“This is a good deal for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the citizens of Pennsylvania,” Rendell said, flanked by the would-be managers, his transportation czar, Roy Kienitz, and the state’s financial advisers.
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Selling assets to pay
Selling assets to pay bloated costs that could be easily reduced by standing up to the Turnpike Commission is silly.\
It’s like borrowing against your house because your kids’ allowance is too high.
agreed
well said anonymous.
turnpike will be an old john wayne movie
ok so now that the spanish are taking over… w the sell of kennywood followed by the turnpike… im kidding like the old john wayne or eastwood movies, but my point is soley this… i dont like foreign firms coming in and the government selling off the rights to where our tax dollars go. See also: Airforce Tanker contracts
There is something wrong with this picture....
If we admit that we can’t run the Turnpike without losing money, or that we have to turn it over to an entity from another country, then tell me exactly what that says about running ANYTHING in the Commonwealth?
Seriously. What is wrong with us? Are we going to outsource our entire nation to other people?
Instead of selling off our tangible assets, which is (in general financial terms) rarely a good idea, wouldn’t it make more sense to just get our shit together?
Or are we incapable of that? I mean, Ed might be right. The state may be so set in its ways that trying change the culture of the Turnpike Commission may be impossible.
I give him credit for pressing the “big ideas,” but from where I sit, this is just dumb and shortsighted.
And no one has yet answered my question; “What if” the winning bidder goes belly up in a few years? Do we have to reinstitute the Turnpike Commission and rehire and relearn how to run the thing? A 75-year lease is absurd. In 75-years, the entire game will have changed.
Oh wait, maybe not…this is PA, after all….
Pilt
Penna Turnpike future
Why is the Citi part of the partnership not talked about. I think, and could be wrong, but I thought one of the Saudi princes owned the major share of Citi.
When the Aussies dropped out of the bidding that was the signal that dealing with Penna was a bad idea. Has anyone done the math to figure out the possible toll rates in 25, 50 and 75 years. Or will this be an abandoned right of way in 20? If the legislature would remove the feeding trough from the current Turnpike Commission we might beable to get new, smart, people to run the oldest turnpike in the country. Or they feeding from the same trough?
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