Dive summary:
- A $1.5 billion dollar transit project envisioned in Chicago would take the transit authority's Red Line rail route from 95th Street to 130th Street, and officials are talking about a public-private partnership as part of a way to fund the work.
- They are being less than clear about the details, such as how the private entity would recoup its invested funds, though authority President Forrest Claypool says, "A big international company – oftentimes with a local partnership – [is] willing to take a greater share of the risk in the belief they can deliver the project faster and cheaper."
- P3 jobs often involve the private entity running the resulting entity for a fee, but Claypool told the Chicago Tribune that fares are unrelated to infrastructure work.
From the article:
"Public-private partnership is one small piece of large infrastructure project…. It is one part. It’s not a substitute for public money. ..."
