Rapid transit
run by engineers begging for money from the state.”
He says this is not sustainable, and the solution, which will be at the heart of the debate in Geneva, is to fine-tune the business model by encouraging greater diversity in revenue streams away from the traditional sources of the farebox and state concessions. “If you depend too much on the state for public funds, and the state is in trouble, you are in trouble,” he says. “We need to take a business-like approach which is acceptable to the finance world. If there is no public money, then what are you going to do? Would you prefer to stay poor, or do we find a new model that helps to build new infrastructure and keep growing?” Public-private partnerships (PPPs), which are increasingly being implemented all over the world, are considered one solution to the funding conundrum. Flausch agrees, but feels that care should be taken to make sure they are carried out right. “The trouble with a PPP is that it is a
difficult scheme and you need experts to build it properly,” he says. “I think
the PPP scheme in London for instance was not properly run. But now with 15- 20 years of experience we can really make good things. There are plenty of beneficiaries of this and I think it should be used. And it is being used.”
Major challenge
Of course it is not as simple to say build it and they will come. Attracting people to use public transport over the car remains a major challenge because, as Flausch points out, it is very easy to turn the key and drive. In an urban environment where many different transport operators coexist, he says it is imperative that close working relationships exist between operators. Authorities can aid this process by instituting barriers to using the car, like congestion charges, high parking levies in city centres, and providing parking facilities at stations. However, these organisations can do more to force the various transport operators in a city to provide seamless information between different services, in effect changing the mindset to viewing each other as
partners rather than competition. Flausch says this situation is often better in the world’s mega cities where transport systems are more established, but is lost upon smaller cities, to the detriment of the passenger and the public transport service. He hopes the World Congress will serve as a forum for sharing the most successful ways of overcoming these barriers and more, which might inspire others to adopt them for the benefit of public transport in their city. If this is the case when the conference next convenes in Milan in 2015 and again in Montreal in 2017, the PTx2 and Grow with public transport initiative will be well on course to being realised. “Obviously it is a hard time for public transport companies, especially in Europe,” Flausch says. “But we know that meeting each other and exchanging ideas helps people. It’s free consultancy. You go and listen to things. You might not try something this year, but later there may come a point where you see that something has been done in London and you think, why not try this here?” IRJ
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IRJ May 2013
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