Managing and Financing Urban Public Transport Systems: An International Perspective

Based on original research by authors from Europe, North America and the former Soviet Union, this book compares the institutional and regulatory contexts in which transit systems operate, the operations and management problems with which they must contend, and the policy options and solutions which they have implemented. Despite the similar problems faced by urban transport policymakers in cities as different as Yerevan and Montreal, there are a number of successful managerial and financial solutions that can be tried to ameliorate them. It is evident that in many cases, managers have misunderstood both the problems and the options available to them, and that they have not responded well to their operations and financing problems. In such cases, urban transport systems have deteriorated as major operational, maintenance, and rehabilitation problems have been ignored. In these cases, citizen transit watchdog groups can play an important role by inventorying performance problems and encouraging action by policymakers to be more accountable and responsive to citizen needs. The interrelated case studies contained in this volume will encourage further comparative research into the problems of urban transport systems and to the identification of an appropriate response by policymakers.