No takers for PATCO line

No sale.

That's the verdict from public-transit experts on an effort to unload the PATCO commuter-train line owned and operated by the Delaware River Port Authority.

A proposal for the DRPA to divest itself of the PATCO line, and its $20-million-a-year operating subsidy, is the brainchild of DRPA board member and Philadelphia labor leader John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty.

Having failed last month with a resolution to unload the rail line, Dougherty is seeking creation of a DRPA committee to study the feasibility of such a sale.

On Wednesday, the board asked DRPA staff to investigate whether a market exists for PATCO.

According to authorities polled by The Inquirer last week: Not really.

With $45.3 million in operating costs and only $24.8 million in revenue projected for this year, and a $194 million program just under way to rebuild PATCO's 40-year-old fleet, PATCO is not an attractive asset for a private buyer.

"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it," said Gordon Linton, a former Philadelphia state legislator who was federal transit administrator in the Clinton administration.

"Asking a private firm to take on not just the shortfalls in operating revenue, but also the capital expense is tough," Linton said. "They'll want a reasonable rate of return, and how do you charge the consumers what it would cost without discouraging ridership?"

Linton and other experts noted that local, state, and federal governments had to rescue mass-transit companies in the post-World War II years because private owners could no longer afford to operate them.

"If DRPA is simply looking to have someone else assume the operation and pay for it with a private operator, I'd be surprised to find out that that's a viable financial model," said Michael Della Rocca, president of North American operations for Halcrow Group Ltd., a London company that develops transportation and other infrastructure projects.

"Why would someone agree to take over the operation? Where would the money come from to offset that operating deficit?" Della Rocca said.

Other public-transit agencies do not want PATCO, either.

NJ Transit, which is struggling with its own financial problems, is not interested, said spokesman Dan Stessel. Neither is SEPTA, said that agency's spokesman, Richard Maloney.

There are many examples of private involvement with public transit, but they require public money.

The River Line light-rail operation between Camden and Trenton, for example, was built and is run by Canadian-based Bombardier Transportation, under contract for NJ Transit. And in another contract with NJ Transit, the Hudson-Bergen light-rail line has been designed, built, operated, and maintained by a subsidiary of URS Corp., of San Francisco.

"There are good and appropriate ways to involve the private sector in transport," said Art Guzzetti, vice president of policy for the American Public Transportation Association. "But an asset sale is a pretty extreme type of measure."

"There are no models for saying, 'Here, private sector, you take it over and you run it for a profit,' " Guzzetti said.

An association task force concluded in 2007 that public-private partnerships in mass transit "should not be viewed as an ultimate funding solution in the absence of other resources, but as a complement to existing and traditional sources of funding for service expansion, modernization, and infrastructure investment."

PATCO, which runs 14.2 miles between Lindenwold and Center City, carries about 10 million passengers a year. Its "farebox recovery," the amount passengers contribute to its costs, is about 54 percent, one of the highest among American mass-transit operators.

Its value should not be measured only in dollars and cents, transit experts say. It is also important in reducing traffic congestion and air pollution and providing dependable transportation for people without cars.

Those kinds of interests require some level of public involvement, or at least oversight, said the association task force.

Della Rocca said that although a private operator could not turn a profit on PATCO, "there are a lot of credible firms that would be very interested in talking about assuming responsibility and making some enhancements and working out a financial arrangement."

"At the end of the day, though, they still expect to be repaid," he said.