Abstract
The need to decrease emissions from the transport sector is getting urgent and public transport can play an important role in the transition to low emission fuels. To a large extent, public transport in Europe is provided by regional authorities who controls the traffic to a varying degree, from complete public monopoly to competitive tendering. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse how the organisation of the public bus transport market influences the introduction of renewable fuels. The focus is on understanding what the motivation is for the use of different organisational forms and what challenges and opportunities the authorities in a region encounter during the introduction of renewable fuels. Interviews with authorities in ten Swedish public transport regions show that when functional requirements are used in competitive tendering it will exclusively result in the cheapest renewable fuel available. Thus, if new fuels or technologies should be able to enter the market, either it will be necessary for regional authorities to take more control using specific requirements or publicly management, or the national government must introduce policy instruments that enable new renewable fuels to become competitive on the market.
Highlights
Road transport is responsible for almost a quarter of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions and cannot be deemed sustainable
The analysis of the ten Swedish public transport regions in this study shows a diverse approach to the organisation of traffic, combining different ways to carry out competitive tendering with public management
Three different approaches to organisation of the traffic in relation to choice of fuel were identified: 1) competitive tendering with functional requirements, 2) competitive tendering with specific requirements, and 3) public management
Summary
Road transport is responsible for almost a quarter of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions and cannot be deemed sustainable. In the transition to a more sustainable transport system, public bus transport has an important role to play by decreasing car dependency (Banister, 2008). With this increased market share, it is essential that public transport represent a fossil-free alternative. Cities and regions have a large part of the responsibility for providing public bus transport in Europe. This has historically been through public monopolies, but today the EU is promoting the use of competitive tendering (European Commission, 2015). It is relevant to understand how regional organisational design affects the introduction of new fuels and technologies in public bus transport
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