Austerity in public transport in Europe: The influence of governance

doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2015.07.005

Research in Transportation Economics

Volume 51, September 2015, Pages 31-39

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2015.07.005 Get rights and content

Abstract

The financial crisis has put pressure on government budgets across Europe. The expectation is that this also has affected public transport budgets in metropolitan areas. This article looks at five cases of metropolitan public transport to see to what extent this is the case. Multi-level governance and fiscal federalism explain the rather surprising outcome.

This article is aimed to be a first step into a better understanding of the effect of governance in public transport in a broad sense. It develops the understanding of how the organizational context influences those funding decisions and the related outcome in terms of public transport services provided and passengers transported.

The article shows that the effect of budget pressure was varied over the five cases depending on governance in those cases and overall can be characterized as limited. Funding and supply generally kept growing, despite the pressure put on budgets by the financial crisis.

Section snippets

Introduction: the financial crisis and metropolitan public transport

Public transport is a strong policy instrument in the hand of local and regional policymakers to provide a more sustainable alternative to transport by car. It provides a tool that can be applied in environmental policies, urban development, mobility management, and social inclusion policies. It can support a great number of the public values (Veeneman, Van de Velde, & Lutje Schipholt, 2006) related to these policy fields: from a healthier environment to economic development, from fighting

Approach: inductive case exploration

As a first inductive exploration this article looks at the relation between the pressure on public budgets, the governance of public transport and the effect on public transport services and usage. In that analysis we treat the governance as the system of decision-making with an output of budget decisions on public transport. Williamson (2000) focuses on a set of contracts as the key base of governance. He also shows how institutions, where he focuses on the legal system, conditions the way

Theoretical framework: multi-level governance and fiscal federalism

In administrative science, a debate has been going on for decades on the best governmental level in which decision-making should be organized. In transport the theoretical debate was more focused, as the action space of many travelers is limited to metropolitan region, leading to the view that this metropolitan level is the right level to deal with the integrated decision-making on transport policies (Witbreuk, 2000). In addition, network design issues are most prominent on those locations

Analysis of the cases

A first major conclusion has to be that the cases show a limited effect of budget pressure on public transport, basically in all cases. First of all, transport expenditure on a national level stayed at a similar level in three of the five countries. Only in the United Kingdom and Italy, spending on transport in general went down substantially. In Manchester we can see this in the reduction of the railway grant.

The case in which the pressure seems to be most directly translated into reduced

Conclusions

Funding for public transport grows and diminishes. Obviously, part of that funding is dependent on the farebox revenue: when more people choose to travel, revenues grow. This is a very flexible coupling between the services provided and the revenues coming in. However, most public transport systems are substantially subsidized. Governments are deciding whether or not to spend public money on providing a public transport service.

That decision-making process is less straightforward than one might

References (38)

G. Currie et al.
Growing patronage – challenges and what has been found to work
Research in Transportation Economics
(2008)
P.J. O'Sullivan et al.
Fragmentation in transport operations and the case for system integrity
Transport Policy
(2004)
B. Pearce
The state of air transport markets and the airline industry after the great recession
Journal of Air Transport Management
(2012)
C.H. Sørensen et al.
Increased coordination in public transport—which mechanisms are available?
Transport Policy
(2011)
D. Van de Velde
Organisational forms and entrepreneurship in public transport: classifying organisational forms
Transport Policy
(1999)
P. Bakker et al.
Hoe groeit het regionaal openbaar vervoer?
(2011)
G.A. Bermann
Taking subsidiarity seriously: federalism in the European Community and the United States
Columbia Law Review
(1994)
CBS
NL CBS Statline
D. Chisholm
Coordination without hierarchy
(1989)
DoT
Department of Transport; light rail and tram statistics

European Parliament et al.

Regulation No 1370/2007 of the European Union on public passenger transport services by rail and by road

(2007)

Eurostat

COFOG Database

L. Eyraud et al.

Too small to fail? Subnational spending pressures in Europe

IMF Working Papers

(2013)

Frankfurt am Main

Frankfurt am Main; Zahlen, Daten, Fakten

GVB

Jaarverslag GVB 2007–2012

(2014)

Hessen

Landeshaushaltplan 2007–2012

(2014)

L. Hooghe et al.

Types of multi-level governance

European Integration Online Papers (EIoP)

(2001)

L. Hooghe et al.

Unraveling the Central state, but how? Types of multi-level governance

(2003)

N. In 't Veld et al.

Eindrapport WROOV-light 2007–2011

(2014)

Cited by (16)

The role of funding in the ‘performative decarbonisation’ of transport in England
2024, Political Geography
The scale of the decarbonisation challenge and the short timeframes over which action is required demand urgent action. This paper is set within the surface transport sector, now the largest sector of emissions with the slowest pace of change in many advanced liberal economies. It focuses on the strategies and actions of local government which is recognised to be a central player in catalysing change. Our evidence is derived from the actions of two UK local areas which claim to be at the forefront of the decarbonisation challenge.
The paper focuses on the role of funding and financial mechanisms in addressing the climate crisis. In the face of an established pattern of austerity and hollowing out of local government we explore how deep transformation is being envisaged. We find a recursive set of issues which derive from a dependence on funding from outwith. This dependence means that despite comprehensive overarching strategies and goals the funding available is the core of the strategy. This means that the nature of the funds, such as the requirement for experimentation, innovation or private sector leverage, defines direction. In turn, and to maintain success in attracting funds, there is an emphasis on presenting ‘premium spaces of ambition’ with little evidence of attention to broader systemic change. This duality is openly recognised. This paper advances a wider point that greater emphasis should be placed on the ‘financialisation’ of climate policy and the reality rather than the rhetoric of change.
Perceived accessibility in Dutch rural areas: Bridging the gap with accessibility based on spatial data
2023, Transport Policy
The spatial concentration of services and facilities poses a challenge to providing sufficient social and economic opportunities in rural areas. Accessibility evaluations based on spatial data potentially overlook individual heterogeneity in needs, desires and abilities, leading to mismatches with how accessibility is perceived. Using data from a self-administered survey in the Netherlands, this paper examines individual factors that explain differences between accessibility to daily activities calculated from spatial data and perceived levels of accessibility in rural areas. Accessibility is perceived as high on average, while 12% of the population is estimated to experience low levels of accessibility at least to some extent. Perceived accessibility correlates poorly with spatial accessibility, but is rather moderated by individual factors. Car mobility appears to be a major contributor to perceiving sufficient levels of accessibility in rural areas. However, the lowest levels of perceived accessibility seem to be more associated with social disadvantages than with transport disadvantages. The integration of relatively easy-to-obtain individual characteristics into spatial accessibility measurements may already significantly close the gap with perceived accessibility. With more explicit consideration of the individual dimension when constructing or interpreting accessibility indicators based on spatial data, the validity of their use in planning practice will increase and therefore facilitate successful accessibility-based planning.
Mega-disruptions and policy change: Lessons from the mobility sector in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK
2021, Transport Policy
There has been widespread interest in the potential for the significant behavioural and policy adaptations rendered necessary by Coronavirus to act as a catalyst for radical longer term policy change in transport. However, this body of work to date has been limited in its consideration of how such policy change might be brought about. Translating the lessons from the Coronavirus response to other ongoing strategic challenges such as decarbonisation requires analysis of what the pandemic has revealed about processes of policy formulation and how institutions responsible for policy implementation actually work.
This paper explores the extent to which rapid policy change has actually been possible in the transport sector in England and Scotland during the pandemic, and key examples of how such change has been both achieved and blocked. Two rounds of interviews with senior stakeholders from across the transport sector were undertaken in June and November 2020 to inform the analysis.
We find that the pandemic has accelerated some policy commitments that were already planned, but at a time of huge stress on the whole of government and its partner delivery organisations, the potential to deliver radical policy adaptation was limited. However, Coronavirus is recognised as being a potentially path-changing disruption to existing trajectories in terms of the adaptations to business practices, industry structures, ways of working and the public finances. Paradoxically, whilst recognising these uncertainties, decision-makers are yet to deviate from pre-pandemic planning assumptions and policy plans and this risks missing the opportunities to steer how those changes unfold.
“It feels like somebody cut my legs off”: Austerity, transportation and the ‘web of dispossession’ in Saskatchewan, Canada
2021, Social Science and Medicine
Citation Excerpt :
Canadian evidence also shows negative health effects of austerity through housing and food insecurity (Ruckert and Labonté, 2014; Tarasuk et al., 2011). While political choices to pursue austerity can increase budgetary pressures on public transportation funding (Veeneman et al., 2015), the specific pathways from austerity to health via transportation remain unclear. We address this gap through the STC case study.
Mounting global evidence reveals a rise in austerity driven by neoliberalisation. We explored the health impacts of an austerity decision to shut down the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) in Saskatchewan, Canada. We conducted 100 semi-structured interviews and 4 focus group discussions with former bus riders and stakeholders in health and social services followed by a member checking exercise. The STC closure has negatively affected health through a web of dispossession where the absence of the bus affects individual former users (through healthcare access, psychosocial and financial impacts), family members (through broken relationships and other burdens), communities (through shrinking commons), and entire systems (such as health services through health worker stress and inefficiencies). Analyses of the health impacts of austerity decisions need to move beyond aggregates of individual users of public services to understand the complex ways in which various communities and systems might be caught up in a web of dispossession through austerity.
Governance, mobility, and the urban form
2020, Urban Form and Accessibility: Social, Economic, and Environment Impacts
Governance consists of those rule sets that let stakeholders decide together on the solutions to implement. It regulates who has what seat at the table where decisions are made. For mobility and the urban form, those rule sets condition the development of the city of tomorrow. This chapter argues that this conditioning is stronger than many policy makers and researchers in the fields of urban planning and mobility consider. They focus on the policies themselves and accept the conditioning through those rule sets as a given. However, the time scales of urban and infrastructure development are long, with the policies often brief interventions and the more established governance being long-term influencers of the development of the city. To support developing the understanding further, this chapter introduces a number of elements of the rule sets, like the distribution of agency, the role of market and governmental players, central and more decentral stakeholders, and the role of governance in coordinating a diverse set of needs of many different stakeholders. It concludes that a number of the current problems and future solutions of the modern city can be addressed by fine-tuning the governance toward a more inclusive rule set.
Organisation and performance of public transport: A systematic cross-case comparison of metropolitan areas in Europe, Australia, and Canada
2019, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
Citation Excerpt :
AF considers two attributes. First, the level of government that is primarily responsible for PT funding, as this can affect the achievement of societal goals (Veeneman et al., 2015). Second, the amount of funds coming from earmarked sources, that indicate funding security and stability (Faivre d’Arcier, 2014; Litman, 2014).
The paper investigates how the interplay between six organisational elements of public transport systems (conditions) – i.e. integration of planning responsibilities within an authority at the regional/metropolitan level; land-use and transport integration; long-term metropolitan public transport planning; agency over funding; fare integration, and allocation of risks between government and operators - influence two key performance indicators (outcomes) – modal split and cost-recovery. The study focuses on selected metropolitan areas in Europe, Australia, and Canada, and employs Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). QCA can handle multiple explanatory conditions in combination, framing the relationship between conditions and studied outcomes in terms of necessity and sufficiency. The paper reveals three alternative combinations of organisational elements that are sufficient for achieving each outcome, underscoring that modal split and cost-recovery depend on the combined effects of multiple conditions (conjunctural causality), and that different paths can lead to similar results (equifinality). Furthermore, even though both outcomes are linked to higher usage of public transport, findings suggest that each of them might require decision-makers to give attention to different elements. Higher modal split is closely linked to both integration between land-use and transport, and the integration of planning responsibilities within an authority at the regional/metropolitan level. Higher cost-recovery, in turn, requires focus on the way agency over funding and risk allocation strategies shape incentives for savings and/or revenue generation.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Austerity in public transport in Europe: The influence of governance

Abstract

Section snippets

Introduction: the financial crisis and metropolitan public transport

Approach: inductive case exploration

Theoretical framework: multi-level governance and fiscal federalism

Analysis of the cases

Conclusions

Research in Transportation Economics

Transport Policy

Journal of Air Transport Management

Transport Policy

Transport Policy

Hoe groeit het regionaal openbaar vervoer?

Taking subsidiarity seriously: federalism in the European Community and the United States

Columbia Law Review

NL CBS Statline

Coordination without hierarchy

Department of Transport; light rail and tram statistics

Regulation No 1370/2007 of the European Union on public passenger transport services by rail and by road

COFOG Database

Too small to fail? Subnational spending pressures in Europe

IMF Working Papers

Frankfurt am Main; Zahlen, Daten, Fakten

Jaarverslag GVB 2007–2012

Landeshaushaltplan 2007–2012

Types of multi-level governance

European Integration Online Papers (EIoP)

Unraveling the Central state, but how? Types of multi-level governance

Eindrapport WROOV-light 2007–2011