Challenges for Public Transport Contracting Governance and Politics

Public transport contracts are occasionally disputed by bureaucrats, labour unions and operators. A significant volume of economic analysis has been conducted on how to minimise problems incurred with contracting, so this article has a slightly different focus on the political aspects. A literature review of 45 papers was conducted to find the problems public transport contracting faces and suggestions on how they can be overcome. Features in contracts that are commonly supported in the literature have practical problems that can lead to relationship breakdowns. Notable features discovered in this review were that cost-plus contracts can retain popular local operators, incoming governments may want to change advisers regardless of their experience, contracting is easier with new routes and the level of government conducting contracting is important