This paper starts with the implications of the high level of urbanisation on the urban transport system, necessitating development of rail based mass urban transport systems. Rail based transit systems are capital intensive and not inherently financially viable. One way of making such projects commercially viable is to invite Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) offers for integrated rail and bus franchise for urban areas. In such an integrated franchise the capital cost of rail based system is initially deferred and later on cross subsidised by the bus system. Simultaneously, the patronage of the system increases because of reduced waiting and in-vehicle time, which results in better passenger comfort and convenience. A study of two Indian cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar is presented. Two alternative scenarios of `LRT (light rail transit) only' and `integrated LRT and bus' franchise are evaluated. It is shown that the breakeven fare in the case of `integrated' system is much lower, justifying the original premise. (A) The French title of the paper is: "Choix du système de la concession intégrée bus et rails pour les systèmes de transit de masse dans les villes : étude de deux villes : Cuttack/Bhubaneswar".
Abstract