Public-private Partnership in Building Public Transport Lines with Right of Way in France: A New Start?

Abstract

At the end of the eighties, several French conurbations considered calling on private companies to construct public transport lines with right of way1. Some ten years after the signature of the first statutory contracts, and faced with a growing number of public transport projects in French conurbations, we feel it necessary to take stock of how these contracts have weathered and how other French conurbations intend to construct their metros, LRTs and bus lines with right of way. Therefore this study recounts the organisation of promoters and the financing of public transport with right of way in sixteen French conurbations with populations from 125,000 to 1,150,000. It appears that the great majority of French conurbations no longer commit themselves to public-private partnerships and conurbations such as Toulouse or Rouen have reversed their choice regarding the statutory contracts that they had granted for a first line. Growing numbers of public partners are asked to finance projects, leading to financing of certain projects by more than five such bodies. This is particularly the case of projects for bus lines with right of way for which the part remaining to be financed by the public transport authority is less than 60%.