Future tendering, management and quality assurance of urban public transport
Thematic areas
Collective passenger transport & shared mobility
Summary
The measure concerned changes to public transport management, focusing on the transport authority as client and transport companies as providers competing for contracts.
Implementing sustainable mobility
The existing market was served by municipal companies and the federal railways, which were both highly subsidised. In the interests of reducing car traffic and promoting sustainability in the city through effective public transport organisation, a business mangement exercise was implemented in Berlin in order to predict the future behaviour of companies, passengers and the transport authority.
Progress
Eight participants were selected to participate in the exercise: deputies of public and private transportation enterprises, authorities, passengers and management organisations. Four sessions were held in order to clarify the definition of service levels, service quality, contractual relationships and control.
Outcomes
Two scenarios were drawn up for 2015, by which time the market transition should be complete.
The first scenario leads to a public transport market with inexpensive, small enterprises. This requires strategically oriented political decisions, solid coordination, control of the public interest, and the integration of public transport services by the authority.
The second scenario leads to decentralised control and organic development and to the reduction of the authority’s role in framework setting. It would result by 2015 in an oligopolic structure, with control and coordination by and large in the hands of competing companies.