Routes to Regional Transit Governance: Researching the Histories of and Cataloguing the Methods Used to Establish German Verkehrsverbünde

Abstract

Regional transit governance has become a topic of growing interest in some transit policy circles in the United States. There is hope that the quality of transit service can be improved by creating governance structures that transcend municipal and county borders to oversee and coordinate transit provision over entire regions. Although several studies have recorded the benefits of such governance systems and several others have explored different models, few have investigated the methods by which these structures were created. This is crucial information, as establishing such governance structures is a delicate political process with no guarantee of success. Through interviews with planners in Germany, this study investigated six German regional transit governance bodies and searched for strategic components that were instrumental to the creation of at least one regional governance structure. Five were ultimately found, which can be mixed and matched for use in strategies in regions seeking to establish regional transit governance of their own. The five strategic components found were bilateral negotiations, state intervention, large infrastructure packages, political moments, and strong leadership. Further case study research is needed to reinforce and expand this set of strategic components.