news September 2003 - n° 14

News from Europe Fuel duty rebate for biodiesel used by in the The European Court of Justice rules that financial The British government announced at the end of 2002 that local support which only represents compensation for operators in the UK will be eligible for a 100% rebate on biodiesel, public service obligations imposed by authorities which is made from recycled waste vegetable oils or virgin rapeseed does not have the status of State aid oils. Biodiesel can be used as a blend (normally at 5%) in all regular The European Court of Justice released on 24th July its long awaited diesel engines. Higher blends and even pure biodiesel can also be judgement in the Magdeburg-Altmark case, which refers to the used, but this usually requires engine modification. Biodiesel offers legal nature of financial compensations granted by public significant CO2 savings and is also sulphur free. authorities to companies in the transport sector. 100% duty rebates are also available to operators using road fuel The Court ruled that there is no advantage, and therefore no gases, LPG and CNG in their . State aid, where a financial measure must be regarded as www.dft.gov.uk compensation for the services provided by the recipient undertakings in order to fulfil public service obligations. However, for such compensations to escape classification as State aid, four conditions must be satisfied. News Firstly, the recipient company must actually have public service obligations to fulfil and those obligations must be clearly defined. from the companies Secondly, the parameters on the basis of which the compensation is calculated must be established in advance in an objective and Rescue plan for ALSTOM transparent manner. Third, the compensation cannot exceed what The French manufacturing corporation Alstom, a leading company is necessary to cover all or part of the costs incurred in the in energy and transport infrastructures markets worldwide with a fulfillment of the public service obligations, taking into account the turnover of € 23 billion in 2002 and 120,000 staff members, secured relevant receipts and a reasonable profit. Fourth, where the in August a financial package of € 2.8 billion. A conjunction of heavy undertaking is not chosen in a public procurement procedure, the debt (€ 4.9 billion) and low level of orders had brought the company level of compensation must be determined by a comparison with an close to bankruptcy. The agreement signed with the banks and the analysis of the costs which a typical transport company would incur French State (which will buy € 300m of capital increase and guarantee (taking into account the receipts and a reasonable profit). new loans) will have to be approved by the to enter into force. The European Commission thinks that the judgement doesn’t www.alstom.com remove all legal uncertainties, and that there is therefore still a need for a new regulation on public service requirements and public service contracts, which has been on the table of the Council of ministers of transport for more than a year. News from EMTA http://curia.eu.int/en/actu/communiques/cp03/aff/cp0364en.htm EMTA Workshop on accessibility of public transport systems to people with reduced mobility European Directive on biofuels adopted At the occasion of the European Year of People with Disabilities, The European Council of Minister of Transport approved on 8 April EMTA will organise on 19th November 2003 in Brussels a workshop the biofuels directive already adopted by the European Parliament. on the issue of accessibility of public transport systems to people Member States must transpose this directive into national laws with reduced mobility. This workshop will focus mainly on the role before 31st December 2004. of public transport authorities for the improvement of accessibility The directive lays down targets for the progressive introduction of to public transport systems and the key role of information. biofuels derived from agricultural, forestry and organic waste products between now and 2010. For the first time, each Member Contributions of EMTA authorities to the European State will have to set targets for the market share of biofuels. These research programme on integration of public transport targets will have to be based on challenging benchmarks set by the systems directive: 2% market share by December 2005; 5.75% market EMTA is actively involved in the European research programme on share by December 2010. Any country setting lower targets will integration of public transport systems pf the European Commission. have to justify them using objective criteria. Some member authorities (Barcelona, Brussels, Genoa, Paris) have Member States must announce by July 2004 the first biofuel targets contributed case studies highlighting the role of public transport to be achieved by December 2005. The Commission will undertake authorities to achieve a high level of integration of networks in the an evaluation of the implementation of the Directive before the end interest of passengers. These case studies can be downloaded from of 2006 and will then decide whether further legislative proposals EMTA’s website (section Publications). are required. Biofuels being currently more expensive to produce than petrol Survey on funding of public transport systems or diesel, the Commission has proposed that Member States through land value capture should have greater powers to levy lower fuel duties on biofuels Following the workshop organised last October on the issue of to enable them to be affordable to individual or corporate transport and land use policies, a working group bringing together buyers. five EMTA transport authorities (Barcelona, Dublin, London, Madrid and the West Midlands) has decided to survey the potential new The use of biofuels can help to reduce European greenhouse gas sources of funding of public transport systems that could derive emissions, as agreed in the Kyoto protocol. The CO2 emissions from a partial capture of the land value increases connected to the produced by using biofuels in transport are balanced by the CO2 existence of efficient public transport systems. The results of this absorbed by the plants as they grew, before being made into biofuels. survey will be available in Spring 2004. www.europa.eu.int www.emta.com News from the cities Launch of car-sharing in BRUSSELS stations and entrances, and the introduction The building of the lines will provide The first four car-sharing stations of the of new ticketing systems. opportunities of urban renewal of brownfield Belgian capital city were inaugurated last • the launch of ZoneCard, the UK’s largest areas and of improvement of public spaces May. This project, called Cambio, was multi-modal ticket initiative covering rail, (trees, new pavements, bicycle lanes). developed jointly by Taxistop, a non-profit bus, subway and ferry services. www.mst.pt organisation, and STIB, the public transport • the electrification of rail lines, and the operator of Brussels, which intend to open opening of new stations and line routes on the two new stations in a near future. Surveys rail network thanks to total investments of A railway station will be built showed that each car from a car-sharing £400 million (€ 560m). As a result, Strathclyde by property developer in LONDON scheme has the potential to replace between now has the biggest and busiest suburban The Strategic Rail Authority, the authority four and ten private cars, and that car-sharing rail system in the UK outside London, with responsible for the British railways, announced is less expensive than owning a private car 181 stations and 530km of tracks. last June that the property developer Saint- up to 12,000km a year. • the modernisation of Dial-a-Bus door-to- Georges will build and fully finance a new train The Region of Brussels will support the launch door accessible service for people who station in line with a large urban development of the initiative with a subsidy of € 150,000 can’t use ordinary buses. project called Imperial Wharf. This new urban on 4 years, and it intends to promote the use • the introduction of a computerised Journey area, which is located along the river Thames in of clean vehicles by car-sharing. Enquiry Support System for the 12 travel the Chelsea area, will comprise 1,600 flats, Brussels is the fourth city in to set centres run by SPT across the Strathclyde 170,000m2 of offices, commercial and leisure up a car-sharing scheme. area, which deal every year with more than areas, and a public park on a 13 hectare www.cambio.de one million enquiries. brownfield regeneration project. The station, that will provide connections with the major SPT has set itself the target of increasing by interchange of Clapham Junction, may open in GÖTEBORG: new high class bus 25% the number of public transport journeys early 2005. service inaugurated by 2011. To achieve this ambitious goal, the www.sra.gov.uk Västtrafik, the regional transport authority authority intends to buy new trains for the rail in West , introduced last January network, to build a rail link to Glasgow airport the first of a series of “Bus trunk lines” in and to investigate other heavy rail projects, Towards regional fare integration the city of Göteborg, the second largest to open new P&R facilities, and to introduce in the metropolitan areas of NORTH city in Sweden (0,5 million). This line, which new standards of real time information at all RHINE WESTFALIA () links the northern bank of the river Göta bus stops. The authorities responsible for public alv with the city centre and the south- www.spt.co.uk transport organisation in the metropolitan western suburbs, has an improved service areas of Cologne (Verkehrsverbund Rhein- with high class buses, frequent service Sieg), of the Düsseldorf-Dortmund-Ruhr area (5 minutes in peak hours and 10 minutes in LISBON: A tramway on the (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr) and Aachen off peak) and improved bus stops. The line south bank of river Tagus in 2005 (Aachener Verkehrsverbund) agreed to accept operates in dense areas, where tramways After the opening in 1999 of Fertagus, a new on their public transport networks tickets could have been an alternative. The concept railway line linking the centre of Lisbon with bought in the other two areas as of 1st August. of bus trunk lines is indeed to use many of the southern bank of the river Tagus (see This shall facilitate public transport trips the ideas that have proved successful EMTA News n°8), where one fourth of the across the administrative limits of the with modern tramways. The routes have 2.6 million inhabitants of the metropolitan transport authorities, and make trips cheaper dedicated lines on most of their itinerary, area of the Portuguese capital city live, a for passengers. 11 million people live in these enabling high commercial speed. Boarding tramway network is being built on the three urban areas altogether. is allowed at all doors like in tramways southern bank of the river. www.vrr.de - www.vrsinfo.de - www.avv.de and contrary to normal bus routes, which can only be boarded through the front door. The first phase of the project, that consists 17 new Volvo CNG buses with a special in three routes serving the municipalities of New start for the in design are used for the first line, and two Almada and Seixal, (310,000 inhabitants more lines will follow in 2004-2005. altogether), will start operations in December The hopes for Thessaloniki, the second www.vasttrafik.se 2005. The network will have a total length of largest metropolitan area of (1 million 13.6km, and will reach 28km in a second inhabitants), to have in 2006 a fully phase. Routes, that will provide connections automated metro system are fading. The 30 successful years of public with heavy rail Fertagus stations and ferry latest project, that was signed in 1999 transport organisation in GLASGOW boats, will be operated from 5am to midnight, between the Greek government and the Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT), the and the commercial speed of the 24 Siemens private consortium Thessaloniki Metro public authority responsible for the Combino that have been ordered will Company, bringing together rail transport systems of the Glasgow-West reach 22km/h on average. The vehicles, that manufacturer Bombardier and civil works central Scotland area (1.6 million inhabitants), will be air-conditioned, will have a capacity of company Bouygues, was cancelled in August celebrated its 30th birthday last June. The 225 passengers (75 seated among them), by the Greek government because it failed to past 30 years have seen major projects of and will provide easy access thanks to their secure private financing. This new blow to a modernisation and extension of the public low floor. 28 millions passengers are expected more than ten-year old project illustrates the transport systems of the largest urban area to travel on the three lines every year. difficulties to bring private investors to fund of Scotland thanks to SPT’s involvement: some public transport investment projects. • the complete modernisation, in the late The total cost of the project is estimated at 1970’s, of the subway, which is the third € 320 million. The Portuguese government The first bids had been submitted in 1993 oldest underground system in the world will bring € 190m and the with interest coming from all the main rail (inaugurated in 1896 after those in London € 75m. MST, the consortium that has been manufacturers (Adtranz, Siemens, Alstom and Budapest), totally owned and operated selected in 2002 by the government to and Bombardier). The contract was first by SPT. Latest upgradings of this network of build the system and operate it for awarded to a consortium led by Adtranz, but 15 stations served by a 10km double track 30 years, comprising the Portuguese the Greek government then disqualified this carrying 15 million passengers a year, transport company Barraqueiro and bid and awarded the contract instead to the comprise the opening of four German manufacturer Siemens, will bring Thessaloniki Metro Company. This decision (P&R) facilities, a new digital CCTV video- € 55m, that will mostly consist of the rolling had led to legal cases raised by the Greek and monitoring system covering all platforms, stock and of ticketing systems. European court of justice and the opening of an investigation by the European VALENCIA: increased patronage Projects of extension of the network, Commission, that eventually cleared the and ambitious projects for public which already comprises 3 metro lines (L1, project. After the latest cancellation, the transport L3 and L5) and one tramway route (T4), Greek government announced that the The metropolitan area of Valencia are underway. The construction of a new project will be relaunched without private (1.6 million inhabitants), the third largest tramway line (T2), counting 8 stations on funds, and that it will be financed by the urban area in after Madrid and its 4.3 km long route, of which 1.8 km will Greek government and the European Union. Barcelona, boasts one of the most extensive be underground, will be set up soon. It will public transport systems in Spain. In 2001, connect the old city center with major The project itself concerns the building of an 161 million trips were made on public public facilities and leisure areas. At the initial 9.4 km line of underground, double transport outside heavy rail, representing same time, the existing underground lines track light railway crossing the city from west about one third of all motorised trips in the will be extended and a major interchange to east, which will have 14 stations. The 36 urban area. After several years of falling station (called Bailen) is being built now, twin-vehicle units that will serve the line were patronage, the trend has been reversed close to the central rail station. This supposed to be adapted from the rolling stock since 1998, and the number of passengers project, of a total cost of € 20million, will used for London . The has increased by 13% in four years. The connect two underground lines with the line will have a capacity of 18,500 passengers main reasons for this positive trend seem suburban and the long distance rail in each direction during rush hours. 30 million to be the building and extension of network. passengers should use the new line every underground lines on the one hand, and year, which shall enable much faster trips for the introduction of fare integration, on the Lastly, a new public transport authority people travelling in the city centre. other hand. covering the whole metropolitan area, Entitat de Transport Metropolita de The total cost of the project is estimated at As an example, the number of passengers Valencia (eTM ), was set up in 2001 by € 600 million, of which 244 million will come using metro (46 million in 2002) increased by the regional government so as to improve from European Union’s structural funds. 14.2% between June 2002 and June 2003. co-ordination of transport planning This result is linked to the inauguration in April between the regional and the municipal In spite of the numerous delays, the Greek of the first section of the third underground levels, to manage integrated fares, to government says it will select a contractor to line (L5), which is operated by , improve the quality of information build the project in 2004, and that it still hopes (the trade mark of FGV, the Valencia regional delivered to passengers, and lastly to to inaugurate the new line for 2008, since it is a public company responsible for regional reorganise the provision of taxi services. Its key component of the candidacy of Thessaloniki railways). This new line, of a current length of objective is to increase the market share of to host the international exhibition Expo2008. 2.3 km, will connect the seafront with the public transport systems. http://metrothessalonikis.tk/ airport in the future. www.etmvalencia.es

Focus 25 years of public transport reform in Sweden: a best practice of decentralisation, competition and coordination of services in the interest of passengers through strong and competent public transport authorities

The setting up of public transport authorities in Sweden in 1978, followed by the deregulation of local and regional public transport services in 1989 have led to some very positive results, in terms of growth of public transport supply and patronage, and of cost reductions. The strong focus put by the Swedish authorities on the issues of quality of service and accessibility of public transport systems to people with reduced mobility also illustrates the fact that competition for the award of transport contracts to companies can go hand in hand with ambitious social objectives. But this requires strong and competent public transport authorities.

The setting up of PTAs permitted lots of flexibility with regard to the a parliamentary resolution of 2000, should The Authority Act of 1978 of the Swedish organisation of the authority and the way be 100% accessible by the year 2010. So as Parliament called for each county (21 in the operational deficits could be distributed to reach a good co-ordination, PTAs have the whole country) to set up an authority having between the different local authorities possibility to manage the local on-demand responsibility for local and regional road forming the PTA (usually half of the deficit for door-to-door services of the national service public transport before July 1981. The main the County and the other half for the local of transportation of disabled passengers, responsibility of the public transport authorities). In some cases, the responsi- whose cost amounts to SEK 1.8 billion authority (PTA) was the determination of bility for municipal services has been wholly (€ 200m) nationwide per year for about service supply and fare levels. Further, the or partly transferred from the PTA to the local 14 million trips. 405,000 persons, that is to authority could decide how public transport authorities, called in this case “primary say 4.5% of the country’s population, is should be operated: by contractors or under municipal public transport authorities”. entitled to use this specific transport service. its own management. Lastly, the authority was responsible for the financial balance of The responsibility for local and regional Some positive results public transport operations. train services as well as boat services was The setting up of PTAs in all Swedish The government analysed the various transferred to the PTAs in 1982 through a counties produced many positive effects in organisational forms possible for PTAs and Parliament resolution, which also provided terms of traffic output and increased decided that they should be an association guidelines concerning financial compensation passenger trips, which took place mostly between the local authorities and the County by the State to the PTAs until the end of during the first years. Overall, service council of the county. The reason was that 2001. Thereafter, no more government output measured in vehicle kilometres this solution made it possible to integrate support is paid out for funding of local and increased by 20% and travelling measured local and regional public transport. Only in regional public transport operations. in passenger kilometres by around 30% Stockholm was it decided that the authority during the period 1980-1984. The would depend only on the County, because Lastly, PTAs have a key responsibility in development of regional bus services, in of the specificity of the capital city of Sweden improving the accessibility of regular which service output increased by 30% and (1.7 million inhabitants). However, the Bill public transport services, which, following travelling by 55% was extremely rapid, September 2003 - n° 14 Focus which meant a considerably more effective to procure all their transport services the industry. The three largest bus companies use of vehicles. during the first year after the coming into (Swebus, owned by Concordia, Linjebuss, The evaluation shows that the total costs force of the deregulation. Others chose to owned by Connex and Busslink, owned by for public transport increased initially procure a limited part of the traffic at a time Keolis) now operate around half of bus concurrently with the extension of services during a longer period, for example 10% services in Sweden. Smaller companies have and that revenues were limited by the per year during a 10-year period. Another been swallowed by bigger ones or have gone discounts introduced by PTAs. However, cost tendency witnessed in some counties was bankrupt. Introduction of competition has also increases didn’t exceed the inflation rate, and to exclude services in population centres led to difficulties to publicly-owned transport the degree of self-financing of operational during the first years. companies. At the beginning of the 1990’s, costs by fare revenues increased from 38 to 80% of the number of buses were publicly 42% during this period. Since then, the rate of Competition has been tough, especially owned. Today, the proportion is the opposite. covering of costs by fare revenues has for services in urban centres. The first Many companies that were owned by local increased further and amounted to 55% for procurements resulted in cost reductions of authorities lost traffic when it was procured, or 2000. This very positive result can be mostly between 10-15%. In some counties, savings were sold to private companies by authorities. explained by the introduction of competition were greater than 15-20%. Competition has One reason may be that the middle-size in the second half of the 1980’s, which led to also enabled to reach better social goals companies had the biggest difficulties to cope strong increases in efficiency of operations, as such as a good environment and a good with the introduction of competition, and will be shown below. accessibility. The number of buses fuelled by companies owned by local authorities ethanol, natural gas or bio fuel has doubled belonged mostly to this size category. The introduction of competition between 1995 and 2000. The proportion of At the end of the 1980’s, public transport low floor buses has reached 60% for urban Lastly, increases in costs of contracts patronage started to decline again. The PTAs services in 1998, and is still growing very fast. have been witnessed in the procurements argued that they had certainly become organised since 2000, which can be politically and financially responsible for It should be noted that competition has had explained by the modernisation of the fleet traffic, but that they had not been given all the no effect on the integration of public transport of vehicles, increased fuel prices and higher tools necessary to manage the system networks, since it is PTAs which define the salary costs. It remains to be seen if this cost properly since they could not choose the services that they want. The Tågplus service, increase is a permanent phenomenon or not. operating company due to the monopolies which has enabled passengers to buy of each operator on the existing routes integrated tickets covering both local public For more information: (“grandfather’s rights”). As a consequence, transport, long-distance rail, and domestic • PTA in Stockholm: www.sl.se the Swedish Government decided in 1985 to boat services since 1993 also illustrates • PTA in Göteborg: www.vasttraffik.se give PTAs the right to purchase transport that competition can be compatible with • about Tågplus: www.tagplus.se services under conditions adjusted to the co-ordination between authorities and (The article is a summary of a report released by the market. Licences granted earlier to companies. Tågplus, which links 2,000 cities Swedish Public Transport Association (SLTF), available operating companies were cancelled after a in the whole country and was used by on their website: www.sltf.se). transition period of four years expiring at 1.4 million passengers in 2002, is managed by mid-1989. A right of redemption of vehicles Samtrafiken, a company bringing together and other assets was introduced for operating the PTAs and the main long distance companies who lost their licences and didn’t operating companies (SJ Swedish Rail, Agenda wish to compete for the services awarded by Arlanda Express, Connex, BK Tåg). 3rd UITP Conference on Travel the PTAs. The assets should be appraised at Information: Making Technology the amounts that could be expected at a sale Although they have had to invest in new work for Traveller’s Information under normal circumstances. The idea that rolling stock with high standards concerning 17-19 September 2003 - Göteborg, Sweden operators should be entitled to compensation environment, road safety and accessibility, www.uitp.com for the loss of the licence was rejected the subsidies paid by counties and local European Transport Conference because the operations were unprofitable authorities to public transport operations in The Association of European Transport without public compensations, and could the 1990’s have decreased at the same time 8-10 October 2003 - Strasbourg, hardly have continued without such public as the supply of services increased. In E-mail: [email protected] support. It is worth noting that, in the end, Stockholm for example, the need for public EMTA-CLUB visit to Porto elec- only two companies decided not to compete money has been reduced by more than SEK tronic ticketing systems and to get redemption of their assets. It should 1 billion (€ 110m) per year during the 1990’s 23-24 October 2003 - Porto, also be noted that the new legal framework thanks to the introduction of competition, E-mail : [email protected] contained no exception for transport while, at the same time, transport supply ECMT Symposium : 50 years of companies owned by local authorities, which increased by more than 20%. research in transport economy also had to go through tendering procedures. 29-31 October 2003 - Budapest, An Act of 1996 enabled transport companies Not everything has been positive with www.oecd.org/cem owned by local authorities to operate competition, however. The first generation of EMTA 12th General meeting contracted services within another local contracts, which were gross-cost contracts, 13-14 November 2003 - London, UK authority than their own, so that they don’t under which all traffic revenues go to the PTA, E-mail : [email protected] have to stop their activities if they fail to win led to a low concern of operating companies EMTA workshop on accessibility the tender in their own territory. with quality of service and development of of public transport systems traffic. Based on some cases, it seems that a 19th November 2003 - Brussels, Belgium Effects of competition solution to this problem could be the E-mail : [email protected] By 1999, around 630 contracts for public introduction of net-cost contracts with quality transport services in the counties had been incentives that create an interest on the part signed between PTAs and transport companies. of the company to increase the number of Out of these, 50% have a validity period of travellers and to pay attention to the quality of 4-5 years and 12% are valid for longer periods. services provided.

Each PTA followed its own path for the Another effect has been a dramatic change in 11, avenue de Villars • F-75007 Paris 01 48 03 73 80 Tél. ++ 33 1 47 53 28 98 • Fax : ++ 33 1 47 05 11 05 introduction of competition. Some decided size of bus companies and concentration of www.emta.com • [email protected]

EMTA News is the quarterly letter of information of the association of European Metropolitan Transport Authorities, which brings together the public transport authorities responsible for improving the mobility conditions of more than 70 million people living in the main European cities. Editor: S. Lecler. September 2003 - n° 14