Photo: Ove Nordström/Mostphotos.
Many additions and exemptions in bus transport procurements
A new study shows that it is common for regional public transport authorities to make additions, exemptions or clarifications when procuring bus services, instead of following the Bus Nordic recommendations as they are. These additions risk leading to increased costs and buses being scrapped prematurely, which stands in the way of circularity.
Every year, a large number of buses are refurbished to enable reuse in contracted service areas in Sweden, leading to significant and often unnecessary costs. In some cases, reconstruction is not even possible, meaning that fully functioning buses are scrapped prematurely. The reconstructions are based on additions made in connection with bus service procurements. Against this background, researchers have examined the extent to which regional public transport authorities (PTAs) use the recommendations in Bus Nordic when procuring, and what additions, exemptions and clarifications are made. The researchers have reviewed Swedish PTAs’ bus service procurements during the years 2017–2022.
“The results show that a very large number of additions, exemptions and clarifications are made to Bus Nordic in procurements in Sweden. The mapping also shows in which areas the modifications have been made, as well as their distribution across Sweden’s 21 regions. The recommendations in Bus Nordic are intended to function as a standard, but if many changes are made, there is a risk that the standard becomes diluted”, says Helene Lidestam, professor at Linköping University and researcher at K2. She leads the research project Circular Public Transport, in which doctoral student Carl Alm (Linköping University and K2) and researcher Carolina Camén (Service Research Center and Karlstad Business School at Karlstad University and K2) are also involved.
Calls for discussion on circularity in bus procurement
The hope is that the results can be useful for future revisions and updates of Bus Nordic. In addition, they can contribute to the discussion on more circular bus procurements, says Helene Lidestam.
“If Bus Nordic is not followed completely , this may lead to high costs for reconstructing buses. It becomes more difficult for bus operators to move buses between regions, which in turn may result in fully functioning buses having to be scrapped prematurely”, she says.
For the researchers, it was surprising that so many additions, exemptions and clarifications occurred in bus procurements overall. The analysis also showed that many clarifications were very similar to the recommendations developed in Bus Nordic.
“We hope that the results can lead to a discussion in the sector regarding the importance of following common recommendations. However, it should be noted that even if a region makes many modifications to Bus Nordic, this does not necessarily lead to high costs; much depends on the type of modifications made. We are currently working on a new study in which we examine the cost of different additions to Bus Nordic and what this may imply for total costs in bus service procurements”, says Helene Lidestam.
Link to the report (in Swedish):
Att främja cirkulär ekonomi genom användning av policydokument inom busstrafik – K2
Link to the project:
Circular public transport – K2
Text: Anna Maria Erling