Privatization still the solution

This article from this morning's Post further reinforces the need to privatize transportation construction:

State transportation officials say Columbia's future might not include rail transit despite pleas to extend such service to the county's largest community.

Howard Del. Elizabeth Bobo (D) asked state officials last year to study whether Washington's Metro rail system or the MARC, the state's commuter rail service, could run to Columbia. But state officials have told Bobo in recent weeks that both options would cost billions over the next 30 years, a prohibitive expense. That should provide local officials with "a little dose of reality," Bobo said.

"We can't move forward thinking we're going to have [rail] transit anytime soon in downtown Columbia," Bobo said after a meeting of Maryland transportation officials in Ellicott City last week.

But they could move forward if a bid went out to private contractors to determine the costs to build such a system privately. I would be willing to be that a number of companies would be willing to build and operate a Metro, MARC, or Light Rail extension if given the opportunity to bid. The concept that a multi-billion project such as this has to be constructed using only state funds is outmoded, and leads to further traffic delays, congestion, and projects that take fifty years to complete.

As I noted last month, the privatization of such projects is the only way to make progress.