Promoting Private Sector Participation

Abstract

As the decade of the 1980s progressed there was a growing awareness that the public sector did not have the resources to continue providing all of the programs to which it had become committed. This was particularly true at the federal level of government. Moreover, by continuing these programs, governmental bodies were preempting areas that could be better served by the private sector. Governments and public agencies began to seek opportunities for greater participation of the private sector in the provision and financing of urban transportation facilities and services. In addition, the federal government sought to foster increased competition in the provision of transportation services as a means to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Changes in the transportation system were intended to be the outcomes of competition in the marketplace rather than of public regulation. This necessitated eliminating practices whereby unsubsidized private transportation service providers competed on an unequal basis with subsidized public agencies (Weiner 1984).