In the course of the liberalisation of the European economic market, market principles have been forced in public transport with increased frequency, prohibiting some subsidisation in between sectors of the company or from the public sector. Non profit oriented contracts for public transport should be concluded by the customer (usually a governing body) and the PT operator. The target is a call for tenders and the allocation of clearly defined services that fulfil not only PT criteria like routing, keeping up service duties etc., but also criteria that guarantee the quality of PT for the passenger. A suitable method should be developed that includes the necessary prerogatives to ensure the implementation of quality standards. Because of the current Austrian concession laws, public tendering of PT services is limited by the existing concession rights of PT providers. Trends in Europe show, however, that the concession laws in force now will be changed and tendering of public services will go public as well. This notion has been considered in the development of the new testing method. All the methods of defining and determining criteria for quality can be adapted to the prospective tendering procedures.
Abstract