Metropolitan bus service contracts (MBSC): Thoughts on the next round

Abstract

This paper revisits a number of themes that have played a crucial role in the debate on alternative contracting regimes for the provision and bus and coach services. We have selected seven crucial issues to reflect on: (i) contractual regimes (in particular negotiated performance based contracts linked to benchmarking and competitive tendering); (ii) contract completeness (focussing on ex ante and ex post elements and what can be improved within the context of current contracts); (iii) building trust through partnership; (iv) number of contract areas (emphasising the crucial demand-side objective); (v) tactical or system level planning for bus services; (vi) asset ownership; and (vii) margins.