The company now has contracts in nine states, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
Not many in Prince George's County, Maryland, know their bus service is run by a French company - though given that it's the home of Andrews air force base, one might expect them to be on the alert for "cheese-eating surrender monkeys".
US fighter aircraft were flying in formation over the bus depot in Forestville last weekend when a European press group paid a visit at the invitation of Connex - a subsidiary of the French conglomerate, Veolia.
Connex has the contract to operate Dublin's Luas light-rail lines.
The company started doing business in the US in 2001 and now has contracts in nine states and Washington DC, employing more than 3,500 people to provide bus, shuttle and commuter rail services as well as "paratransit" for people with disabilities, as required by US law.
Its biggest coup, as part of a private-sector consortium, was to break Amtrak's monopoly on US railways by winning a franchise to run the commuter rail network serving Boston. This softened its shock at losing the contract to operate rail services in Kent and Sussex last June.
Connex, which runs public transport services in 22 countries worldwide, sees the US as a growth area. "We want the American public to expect, and demand, state-of-the-art transportation systems," said chief executive Mr Stephane Richard, an archetypal French technocrat.
Last week the company announced it was establishing its North American headquarters in Baltimore. The deal was done last April: "Not a very warm season in \ French-American relationship," as Mr Richard recalled. In fact, the two countries were engaged in a war of words over Iraq.
Mr Michael Steele, Maryland's first black governor and a Bush appointee to the board of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, had no qualms about the deal. "The business of our state is business and it was a good deal for Maryland. Politics didn't enter into it," he told The Irish Times.
There had been "no negative feedback" about using with a French company. Mr Steele said what really concerned people in Maryland was the "nightmare gridlock" on all major highways, which meant a 25-minute drive could turn into a two-hour journey.
Mr Ron Hartman, executive vice-president of Yellow Transportation, the long-established bus company Connex acquired to gain its foothold in Maryland, said its French ownership was a non-issue for passengers. "They don't care who runs the bus so long as it's on time."
A survey in March commissioned by the American Public Transport Association, found two-thirds of Americans believe the US is facing a transportation crisis and even more of them said they would vote for candidates who favoured investing in public transport, using public funds.
However, with many US states in serious financial difficulties and some facing monumental deficits, the prospect of major public investment is evaporating. Projects worth billions of dollars have been pigeon-holed and governors are increasingly looking to the private sector to pick up the slack. The largely untapped US market is seen as a major business opportunity by foreign companies like Connex. It now operates over half of the privatised bus services in the Washington DC region, such as the metro shuttle bus from Georgetown, used by over one million people a year.
Connex cites figures showing its bus service in Fairfax County, Virginia, is one of the top 10 most improved public transport systems in the US - and that it's run 17 per cent cheaper by the private sector. Customers include John Hopkins University and most of the region's major hospitals.
Baltimore and Washington DC, whose "beltway" ring-roads almost meet, constitute the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the US after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and they are being used by Connex as a springboard to win lucrative public transport contracts throughout the country.
"Our goal is to become known as the single best option for localities, states and regional transportation authorities," Mr Richard said - in effect, by bringing the best European standards to the US. "Mediocrity is not an option. We will raise the bar for public transport wherever we do business."
But there is one area where the US is streets ahead of Europe. Under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, for which Vietnam veterans campaigned, bus companies are obliged not just to adapt their buses with ramps, but also to provide a door-to-door service for seriously disabled people.
Dr Rosalyn Simon said anyone confined to a wheelchair can book a trip a day in advance to wherever they want to go within the transit area. And since they can't be charged more than twice the standard fare, up to 90 per cent of the cost of this "paratransit" service is met by the state.
Mr Mike Hannon, who runs the bus service in Prince George's County, said they get 3,000 bookings per day for the paratransit vehicles, each equipped with a wheelchair lift, and complex algorithms are required to devise routes to serve everybody's needs. But it's a public service obligation.
In Boston, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority reckons it will save $100 million over five years by contracting out commuter rail services to the Connex-led consortium. Mr Michael Mulhern, its general manager, said the success of the bid was based on being candid with the unions.
Boston's "Big Dig" puts the Dublin Port Tunnel and Luas construction works in the shade. It involves building an eight-lane highway under the city as well as new bridges, overpasses and link roads. Work started seven years ago and it will take another two years to complete - at a cost of $15 billion.