Regulation and Competition in the European Land Transport Industry: Recent Evolutions

Abstract

This paper describes the substantial changes that have taken place in European public transport over a 15-year period. These changes include the gradual introduction of competitive tendering in several countries, the appearance of larger European transport groups on the supply side, the reorganization of financing and of public transport authorities in other cases. Compared to the evolutions or even revolutions that took place in last decade or two, relatively little has happened in the local and regional public transport world during the last two years in terms of regulation, contracting and competition. This is not to say nothing has happened in other areas of public transport, because there have been numerous changes or innovations in some technical field, in marketing or in transport policy. Most of the changes that can be observed in the contracting/competition field during the last two years are either in line with the policy changes already engaged a few years ago, or fine-tuning of existing regimes. Therefore, this paper will start with a quick review of some of the changes before focusing on what continues to be a core issue at the European level, i.e., the renewal of the existing legal framework on the attribution of exclusive rights and of financial compensations for public service obligations in local and regional passenger transport. A few conclusions as to the future of European public transport, form the point of view of organizational forms, is given in the last section.

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