Emerging public transport organizational structures: options for improving customer service

Abstract

Transit costs and fares have risen well ahead of inflation and services have been poorly matched to markets or reduced. This results from three factors. First, suburbanization made conventional services less relevent. Second, transit narrowly focused on its conventional product, rather than on mobility. Finally, the monopoly structure of transit compromised its ability to control costs. New funding requests have been met with skepticism, and some communities have restructured institutions, to take advantage of cost efficient and market oriented alternatives such as private contracting and paratransit substitution. Policy fragmentation, the first form, involves new services provided by general governments. Another form is regional policy organizations, which guarantee service without providing it. Policy separation is preferable to policy fragmentation because it serves both regional and local needs. These trends reflect the recognition that the mission of transit is mobility, and not a particular service mode. Focusing on the customer rather than the product results in better service to riders and improved public resource utilization.

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