Sweden has 24 counties and 284 local authorities. Each county has its own Public Transport Authority (PTA), responsible for providing adequate public transport. A PTA decides the scale of the county's services, timetables, and fares for all public transport modes, namely bus, rail, and sometimes also ferries. All PTA traffic is usually tendered out to operators owned by the state, local authorities, or the private sector. There are three current rail operators, including Swedish State Railways (SJ), each of which is run commercially. While SJ is expected to be able to operate most inter-regional rail services on a commercial basis, tenders are invited where it is found that this is not possible. In the Stockholm area, SJ runs both shorter-distance and long-distance commuter services, with contracts specifying both quantity and quality of services. In the county of Malmohus, the regional train services are contracted out to SJ, and regional train travel has increased by 30% during the last five years. Customer opinion surveys are often made. Today, there are about 45 franchising or contractual arrangements for rail passenger transport in Sweden. Both net cost and gross cost agreements have been used, and have their advantages and disadvantages. SJ remains the dominant rail transport operator.
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