Effects of tendering in regional public transport: Early experiences Recent legislation on public transport is aimed at facilitating two processes: decentralisation of (regional) railways and tendering train and bus services. Since 1998 MuConsult bas been following the first experiences with these processes by order of AVV Transport Research Centre. This paper describes the early experiences with tendering bus services. Although it would be premature to draw conclusions on the effects of tendering already, the first tenders are attended by an increase in supply. In a number of cases this increase is used to fulfil the social needs of specific groups of the population. The increase of efficiency that is necessary is achieved by converting regular public transport in small-scale transport (on demand). Due to this a shift in employment in the transport sector and a decline of incomes of bus drivers can be noticed. Finally, we see that Public Transport Authorities are reticent to give over the development function to bus operators. Hence, a further increase of efficiency seems possible but before a number of barriers of entry has to be solved, for example with respect to the availability of buses and the transition of bus drivers and staff. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting