Penn Pike concessionaire would move cautiously to all-electronic tolling

Jordi Graells managing director of Abertis the majority equity holder in the Abertis-Cit partnership selected by the Governor of Pennsylvania for a longterm lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike said today they will be moving very cautiously on all-electronic tolling. At a minimum he said it would be ten years.

All-electronic tolling (AET), also called 'cashless' would eliminate all toll collector jobs.

This caution on AET was a major point during an hour long conference call today for journalists with Graells, Michael From managing director of Citi Infrastructure Investors and Rob Collins of Morgan Stanely

"Our approach is conservative. Our first job will be to make sure it is well managed. We are going to be conservative, and move step by step. We do not believe in any rush or sudden moves. We will be very mindful of (the opinion of) the guys that are there," Graells said

He continued: "Any transition to a less labor intensive system we will do in a carefully planned way. We will make sure anyone who is displaced can be retrained to work within the company or within the corridor. It is better to do things smoothly and get it right."

Graells said all-electronic tolling depends on decisions made more broadly in the toll industry. He referred to choice of new "frequency" transponders - an apparent reference to the possibility of 5.9GHz Omniair- or other new technology being pursued by the E-ZPass Inter Agency Group as being one factor precluding an early move.

Another matter that needed work before AET could be considered Graells said, is collection of tolsl from out-of-state motorists and more cooperation in camera based (or video) tolling between the states.

This is an argument used by the Maine Turnpike Authority in a heated dispute over how their major toll plaza at York should be configured.

Asked how long it would be before cash toll collection was ended, Graells said: "Not before ten years, maybe more."

European precedents

European toll operators tend to be conservative in the extent they rely on electronic tolling. Dulles Greenway, Indiana Toll Road, and Chicago Skyway all designed and managed by European operators have first generation single lane roll through electronic tolling with gates. They also operate the most advanced all-electronic tollroad in Toronto Canada (407ETR) but they got a concession on that after the toll system was up and running (designed by Hughes/Raytheon for a provincial toll authority). There is virtually no all-electronic tolling in Europe apart from daytime 'congestion' tolling in downtown London and Stockholm.

Three other toll concessions operated by Australian/European toll operators in the US also inherited toll systems with open road tolling in the center and cash collection to the sides, and have not modified them substantially:

- Transurban operated Pocahontas Parkway in Richmond VA

- Macquarie operated South bay expressway in San Diego CA

- Brisa (Portugal-Brazil) operated Northwest Parkway in Denver CO

Graells said that beside the unionized workforce who would be protected by labor contracts, PTP would be keen to retain the expertise of those management staff who wanted to work with the concessionaire company.  However he said they would bring in some managers with international expertise to apply what he called "best practices."

Much of the conference call consisted of a presentation of the case for the lease along the same lines as those expounded by the state Governor Ed Rendell. Michael Fromm of Citi took the lead on this. This is contained in a 12-page slide presentation in pdf form (see below)

Graells  from Abertis was sharpest in his criticism of what he called "erratic" toll increases under the Turnpike Commission - the large increases in toll rates followed by years with no change - though he added it was common. He said only with annual toll adjustments is it possible to do efficient management and good longterm planning.

The war of the websites - Abertis-Citi vs Penn Pike Commission

Abertis-Citi, the chosen concessionaires for the lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike have set up a website to press their case. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, fighting for its survival, has been running an anti-lease website for months under the title I-80 Moving Forward.

So it's a war of websites.

We call Pennsylvania Transportation Partners Abertis-Citi because Abertis has a majority share (59%) and is likely to take the lead in managing operations while Citi has a minority share (41%). But the Rendell Administration and the chosen concessionaire prefer the sytling Citi-Abertis, apparently to stress the American role.

In the conference call today they said that PTP is a "partnership". Under their partnership agreement Citi will appoint the chairman of PTP and both parties will need to agree to senior staff appointments.

They said it's equally valid to call PTP Citi-Abertis or Abertis-Citi.

The PTP website is

http://www.penntransportation.com/

PTP's presentation is downloadable here

http://www.penntransportation.com/uploads/PTP_Overview_for_Commonwealth.pdf

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's anti-lease website:

http://www.paturnpike.com/i80/

TOLLROADSnews 2008-06-02