Vetenskapliga artiklar

The creation of an efficient public transport system increasingly requires collaboration between independent organizations. Institutional reforms in Europe have created governance situations where collaboration between organizations is a critical issue, and examples include the integration of transport and land-use planning and the planning of large public transport projects. The organizational context of public transport, with several formal, discrete organizations that need to collaborate, raises questions about how functioning collaborations can be accomplished. This paper examines how to create functioning collaboration between organizations in the public transport sector. We depart from a theory of collaboration as a stepwise trust-building process, and we present results from a comparative case study of collaboration in two Swedish public transport projects. The results show some of the prerequisites that must be in place in order for the collaboration to work, but also the boundaries of what collaborative approaches can bring about. Conditions such as honest, open, and inclusive dialog between stakeholders and resources in the form of finance, knowledge, mandate, and leadership are important. While there is no guarantee that this will lead to differences in interests being resolved, the results indicate that it improves the chances of finding compromises that all of the involved stakeholders can accept, especially if favorable conditions for collaboration are established at an early stage of the planning process. Building on these findings, we suggest some practical recommendations for improving collaboration in future public transport projects. These practical recommendations are aimed at improving the handling of unavoidable conflicts in collaboration in a constructive way.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse informal collaboration in the public transport sector. Two Swedish case studies, Living lab Uddevalla and Guidelines for Regional BRT are analysed and compared concerning what kind of learning occurred and what lessons regarding informal collaboration to draw from the two cases. For both cases the analysis indicates that individual, single loop learning is the most striking type of learning among the participants. The voluntary approach of the two cases has advantages and drawbacks. Advantages include that participants were truly interested in the issues of collaboration, which created energy and contributed to building trust. The main drawback identified was that in both cases the voluntary enthusiasm of the participants collided with the formal requirements of planning and decision making. This has stifled the possibility of the informal collaboration processes to induce change in prevailing practices.

State, regional, and municipal authorities, public transport authorities, and traffic operators at many levels are essential actors in public transport. This paper presents a typology of four coordination mechanisms relevant to interactions among public transport actors. These four mechanisms, i.e. ownership/instruction, contracts, partnerships, and mutual understanding, are all based on basic coordination mechanisms of markets, hierarchies, and networks. A case of timetable planning is examined, because inter-organisational coordination between actors is crucial in this field, and the usefulness of the typology is illustrated via three examples. The results stem from a Danish study of institutional constraints on timetable optimisation in inter-organisational relations. The empirical focus is eastern Denmark, including Greater Copenhagen.

This paper is about collaboration in public transport governance. Drawing upon the emerging literature that views collaboration through the lens of networks, we explore why and how regional public transport authorities collaborate with both municipalities and public transport operators in the planning of public transport. We also explore the advantages and disadvantages of such collaborations. Based on interviews with civil servants (government officers) in the Swedish metropolitan regions of Stockholm, Västra Götaland and Scania, we conclude that collaboration is, firstly, a way for the regional public transport authorities (RPTA) to engage with the local municipalities and develop joint agreements on public transport priorities. It is also a way to build a common identity with the public transport operators, who operate services under tendered contracts. Secondly, we find that collaboration takes place during official meetings, as well as in informal conversations and face-to-face dialogues. Thirdly, the potential advantages and disadvantages of collaboration hinge on the ability of coordinating actors to put in place processes where the feasibility of plans can be established, and where a sense of common identity can be constructed.

This following special issue of the European Journal of Transport Infrastructure Research (EJTIR) containing 4 scientific papers is the result of the work conducted under the research project ‘National Transport Planning – Sustainability, Institutions and Tools’ (SUSTAIN) (2012- 2017) financed by the Danish Innovation Fund. SUSTAIN was coordinated by first the Department of Transport of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Transport) and later as the result of a reorganisation of the transport research at DTU by the Department of Management Engineering (DTU Management Engineering). The project was carried out in cooperation with several Danish and international partners.

Bundled offerings that facilitate using multiple means for solving everyday travel needs are proposed to hold potential to facilitate a modal shift from private cars to servitized transport modes, including public transport (PT). This type of offering, often coined Mobility as a Service (MaaS), may require new forms of partnerships, in which private actors play a larger role in the creation of public value. Accordingly, based on input from 19 interviews with MaaS actors active in West Sweden, this paper explores how MaaS could develop and how PT might be affected. Three predictive scenarios are identified – market-driven, public-controlled and public-private – and the implications for future PT, in terms of the scope, usage, access, business model, competence structure and brand value, are discussed in relation to these. The authors conclude that finding a regulatory ‘sweet spot’ that drives innovation and secures public benefits will be key for future developments.

Departing from open innovation (OI), this case study explores the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in West Sweden. An analysis of 19 interviews reveals how representatives from involved actors perceive internal and external barriers as hampering the regional public transport authority’s attempts to collaborate with private actors, and that the perception of barriers is incongruent across public and private actors. Transferability to other cases of public–private OI is discussed, and implications for public actors are proposed. The paper expands the knowledge of preconditions for MaaS’ development and of the unique conditions for OI in public–private settings.

Recent research on public transport has seen increasing focus on issues like coordination, collaboration and steering in complex governance settings. One of the themes in this field of research is related to partnership approaches, as one way of stimulating functioning collaboration between formally independent private and public organisations. The aim of this paper is to explore the role and function of partnerships as a way of supporting well-functioning public transport networks and services in fragmented institutional settings. The empirical focus is on partnerships between operators and public (transport) authorities in two different legal settings: England and Sweden. The analysis is based on interviews with operators and public transport authorities in two metropolitan regions in each country where innovative partnership working has been developed to deal with various types of barriers to delivering better public transport. The results show the key qualities of these partnerships that are required for them to function. Although the regulatory contexts are very different, the partnership qualities are very similar in both cases.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between the formal (governance established in law) and informal institutions (governance not established in law) that underpin the planning, operation and improvement of local and regional public transport, by using case studies of four countries: Britain (more specifically England, outside London); the Netherlands; Germany; and Sweden. The paper uses a framework drawn from the literature on institutional change to analyse the interplay between the formal governance structures and the other actors and organisations that have an influence on public transport, the formal and informal relationships between them, and how informal institutions emerge to increase the effectiveness with which public transport is delivered. By selecting countries with some similarities in institutional structure, it is possible to explore how relationships can differ even within a relatively similar overall framework for public transport. Drawing on qualitative research with actors in the different countries, the research explores how informal institutions help actors negotiate the constraints of formal, statutory institutions. Findings reveal that informal institutions smooth the critical interfaces where formal institutions were producing sub-optimal public transport, thus providing evidence that the two modes of governance are, in fact, highly complementary.

The 2014 Swedish National infrastructure plan allocated funds to implement a “Regional Superbus concept”. The concept involves the upgrading a number of existing regional express bus services to make them function as an alternative to investing in regional rail. The Regional superbus concept is an attempt to adapt the BRT planning philosophy to the regional scale and the context of the region it serves. The concept was developed by a constellation of representatives of different public organisations in the Skåne region and the process required collaboration to handle a number of critical challenges. The aim of the study is to examine how collaboration worked in the concept development phase, and identfiy lessons for implementing the concept elsewhere. An interview study with key actors is analysed with a theoretical framework on collaborative governance. The results identifies a number of challenges such as: formal planning system characteristics earmarking money for specific organizational budgets; the closed concept development process in order to reach consensus in the concept development group; the lack of “best practice” experiences and reaching agreement about problem definitions. Lessons for future implementation includes: ensure an open and transparent process involving public participation; the need for an understanding of the effects of different aspects of the concept; the importance of working with all aspects of the concept and to be aware that key elements of the concept aimed to improve travel time and comfort require controversial decisions concerning e.g. bus stop removal and unconventional bus priority measures.