PRIVATE RAIL TRANSIT: CAN IT SUCCEED?

The infrastructure paper in this issue examines recent attempts to use public-private partnerships for new rail transit projects. The projects include a mass transit link in downtown Boston, a maglev project in Orlando, and a rail link between Dulles Airport and Washington's metro system. None of the three projects has come to fruition. The authors -- all distinguished experts on the subject -- conclude that private rail projects are inherently highly complex, due in part to the fact that they require public subsidy. The complexity leads to dealy, financing problems, and, all too frequently, to project failure. The numbers of participants required for a successful public-private partnership in rail projects have grown so large that the politics of the projects become both tangled and fragile.