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Organisational form and performance of urban public transport in Western European cities

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posted on 2010-11-24, 14:31 authored by Alvaro Fernando de Oliveira Costa
In recent years, many Western European urban public transport systems have undergone major reorganisation, including London (1985), Madrid (1985), Manchester (1986), Zurich (1990), Antwerp (1991), Copenhagen (1991), Athens (1992,1993), Gothenburg (1993) and Hamburg (1996). Other cities are also about to implement reorganisationsin their public transports ystems. Despite this, and with the exception of the British case, relatively little attention has been paid in the literature to the determinants and effects of these changes. Nevertheless, economics has benefited from individual contributions from people involved in these reorganisations. The aim of this thesis is to address two main weaknessesin the existing literature on the organisationo f urban public transport. Firstly, there is a distinct shortage of studies integrating different experiences in terms of forms of organisation.a nd their important features. Hence, emphasisi n this thesis is placed on examining structural changes in urban public transport, using a broad typology of organisations, and to explore related changes in the conduct and performance of public transport systems. A second weakness of the literature is the lack of detailed evaluations of the link between forms of organisation and the performance of transport operators. The evaluation of this link is carried out making use of case studies of Metro de Madrid and London Underground. The key objective of this thesis is to explore the existence of a link between organisation of the urban public transport markets and the performance of transport operators. Ile empirical analysis supports the hypothesis that reorganisations induce changes in performance levels. Additionally, in the cases of Metro de Madrid and London Underground, efficiency and effectiveness values emerge as positively correlated which is contrary to evidence presented in previous work.

Funding

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

History

School

  • Business and Economics

Department

  • Economics

Publisher

Loughborough University

Rights holder

© Alvaro Costa

Publication date

1996

Notes

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.

EThOS Persistent ID

uk.bl.ethos.338006

Language

  • en

Supervisor(s)

Kenneth Button ; Thomas Weyman-Jones

Qualification name

  • PhD

Qualification level

  • Doctoral

This submission includes a signed certificate in addition to the thesis file(s)

  • I have submitted a signed certificate

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