The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Commission ("BART") Oakland Airport Connector project is utilizing a hybrid availability payment structure.49 Teams were shortlisted to bid on a concession to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a 3-mile rail connection between the existing Coliseum Station of the BART rail system and the Oakland Airport. According to the request for qualifications issued to prospective bidders, BART expects that the private concessionaire will be paid with a combination of (i) availability payments, (ii) performance-related payments and (iii) a small percentage of ridership incentive payments, which are payments directly related to actual ridership. BART is generally assuming the risk that the facility will not generate forecasted revenue, and BART will make payments to the concessionaire based on the project's availability and the concessionaire's performance. Nevertheless, in order to align the concessionaire's interests with BART's interests, BART is making a portion of the concessionaire's compensation dependent on actual ridership.
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49 The BART OAC website is: http://www.bart.gov/about/projects/oac/ (last visited July 7, 2008)