Delivering Value for Money to Government through Efficient and Effective Public Transit Service Continuity: Some Thoughts

Abstract

This paper documents some thoughts on the reform agenda in public transit that is occurring throughout the world. The specific focus is on a growing commitment to competitive regulation through competitive tendering, and the efforts by a few governments (notably in Australia) to take control of the tangible assets used by private operators as a mechanism to exercise the opportunity, if so taken, to put services out to competitive tender. We review the theoretical arguments and the empirical evidence on contracting regimes and asset ownership, and the role that government and operator might play in a setting in which building trusting and collaborative partnerships has merit in delivering services that are in the main funded from the public purse.