THIS PAPER ANALYSES THE COST STRUCTURE OF A NONTRADITIONAL (BUT INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT) PUBLIC TRANSIT FIRM, I.E., A PARATRANSIT-TRANSIT FIRM THAT PROVIDES BOTH MASS TRANSIT AND PARATRANSIT SERVICES AS WELL AS CONTRACTED-OUT SERVICE. A NUMBER OF CONCLUSIONS FOLLOW FROM THE ANALYSIS. FIRST, CONTRACTING OUT A SERVICE SUBSTITUTABLE FOR MOTORBUS SERVICE MAY INDUCE UNIONISED MOTORBUS OPERATORS FEARFUL OF JOB LOSSES TO AGREE TO WORK-RULE CHANGES THAT ALLOW TRANSIT MANAGEMENT TO CHANGE THEIR WORK SCHEDULES IN ORDER TO LOWER THE COST OF MOTORBUS SERVICE. SECOND, WITH SERVICE PROVISION MEASURED IN TERMS OF VEHICLE-MILES, THE SERVICES RANKED ACCORDING TO THOSE HAVING THE LARGEST COST ELASTICITY TO THE SMALLEST ARE MOTORBUS, ELDERLY AND HANDICAPPED PARATRANSIT, VAN POOL PARATRANSIT, AND CONTRACTED-OUT DIAL-A-RIDE PARATRANSIT SERVICE RESPECTIVELY.(Author/publisher).
Abstract