On 7 November last I made a statement to the Public Transport Partnership Forum in which I outlined in detail my proposals for the reform of the bus market in the greater Dublin area involving the phased introduction of franchising.
Initial proposals for franchising were made in a Government consultation paper, A New Institutional and Regulatory Framework for Public Transport, published in September 2000. These proposals took account of research by my Department which looked, in particular, at experiences in London, Stockholm and Helsinki. That research concluded that where franchising had been introduced, operating and subvention costs had reduced and service quality improved
In response to the proposals outlined in that consultation paper, the Public Transport Partnership Forum commissioned a consultancy report, the NERA report, to examine models of transport regulation in a range of cities around the world to assist it in making a formal statement of its views in response to that consultation paper. Nine cities were identified as being representative of the wide range of approaches to public transport regulation that exist. The report summarised key aspects of each city's performance as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each city's approach. In general, the report supported the introduction of some form of competitive tendering for bus services in Dublin.
The European Commission also undertook independent research which supported the case for introducing controlled competition in public transport. This research led the Commission to publish proposals for a regulation which would require member states to tender for the provision of subvented public transport services. These research findings led me to propose that controlled competition in the form of bus franchising should be introduced in the greater Dublin area. I am convinced that properly designed and implemented, it can lead to significant improvements in service provision and reductions in the level of subvention for a given level of service. I look forward to further discussing these issues with the social partners.