The journey towards fair competition in bus transport: Market structure, business models and court appeals
After a period characterised by trust and collaboration among public transport stakeholders, several indicators suggest that the market has become more difficult to navigate, both for contracting authorities and operators. Many contract awards are being challenged, contracting authorities report that price bids do not reflect the quality dimensions of the contracts, and operators state that profitability is unsustainably low. In addition to short-term problems and costs, the situation risks hampering the development of public transport and the attractiveness of collective mobility.
The aim is to generate new knowledge on how public transport authorities can develop their working methods and procurement of bus services to promote fair competition. By fair competition, we mean a competitive environment that encourages many operators to develop and streamline their deliveries over the long term, in line with the contracting authority’s objectives. This can be contrasted with a situation where the design of procurements and contracts unintentionally excludes suitable operators, distorts the driving force of competition, and leads to costly legal challenges. The project is intended to address research gaps in how public contracting authorities can manage heterogeneous supplier markets, in terms of size as well as financing and business models; the causes and consequences of legal challenges; and how contracting authorities can develop procurement models that take into account the risk of such challenges. These themes will be analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.
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