Splitting up concession areas. Opportunity or threat for urban public transport While tendering the public transport the Public Transport Authorities (PT A) have the opportunity to split up the public transport network in separate concession areas. In common this offers opportunities for market competition, tailor made transport networks and high quality service to users. Furthermore, the PTA has to decide who will design the public transport network: the PTA or the operator. A case study was performed to analyse typical design problems related to splitting up concession areas. The case Delft shows that the integration of the city and rural bus network is more efficient than operating two separated networks. This is the consequence of a large group of users, which is using both networks for their trips. Due to the modern street pattern there is a lack of sufficient infrastructure to develop alternative local bus networks. The case The Hague showed that splitting up concession areas strongly reduces the possibilities for designing proper public transport networks. Furthermore, a distinction between bus and tram networks allows for competition on the road. In large cities co-ordination and coherence of public transport is very crucial for traveller (travel time), operator (profit) and PTA (modal split, cost benefits). These results limit the options of the PTA in splitting the public transport network and decisions concerning the responsibility of the network design. (Author/publisher)
Abstract