Organising and financing long distance public transport

Purpose and goal

The project is a continuation of a research collaboration between research groups at Stockholm School of Economics and Transportøkonomisk institutt in Oslo (TØI), regarding a comparative analysis on how long-distance public transport (bus and rail) is organised and financed in Sweden and Norway. The goal is to examine how different solutions at regional and national levels, and the links between them, have influenced the development of costs and supply in long-distance public transport. The initial research has identified four main areas of interest for continued research and analysis: 1. The importance of rail infrastructure investments 2. The importance of ownership models 3. Coordination and collaboration between infrastructure authorities and operators 4. Support for similar conditions for competition regarding both bus and rail

Results and expected effects

The project is expected to give several contributions and effects: * Provide a basis for rules and organisational changes that lead to a more attractive and more efficient use of the transport system. * Increase the flow of knowledge, build-up of competence and implementation of research results in the application of public transport, for example by means of input on the design and implementation of a new regulatory framework for public transport. * Build-up of knowledge in academic and industry environments, also outside of Sweden and Norway.

Approach and implementation

The research groups will jointly with industry representatives discuss what kind of data that needs to be collected, based upon the four identified main areas of research. Both qualitative and quantitative information is needed. An important part of the data collection will be interviews with representatives for authorities, industry organisations and operators in Sweden and Norway. In an initial stage there is also a need to collect complementing data on long-distance bus services in Sweden since the official statistics have turned out to be insufficient. We will put an emphasis on spreading the research results broadly, for example by means of: * Organising at least one major seminar in Sweden. * Organising 2-4 minor working seminars * Submit at least 3 papers to relevant conferences * Submit 1-2 manuscripts to well-known journals for publication. We also intend to establish a formal reference committee with representatives from the industry and people with influence on policy issues.