PRICING AND FINANCING SCHEMES IN THE DIFFERENT REGULATORY AND ORGANISATIONAL FRAMEWORKS FOR URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEMS IN EUROPE

Urban Public Transport (UPT) is considered an indispensable element to support economic and social activities in modern cities, and this is probably the main reason why this sector is so politically sensitive, and has also been across its history subject to State intervention both through regulation and subsidising. During the last decade this sector suffered strong movements of change with three main goals: increasing its productive efficiency; reducing the gap between the price paid by the users and the real costs of providing the service; and reducing public expenditure in the sector by introducing new ways to involve private finance. The modal split between public and private transport results from several different reasons among which we highlight the fact that pricing strategies often fail to send the correct signals to consumers. This lack of effectiveness has led to growing demand for private transport and consequently to the inadequate provision of urban infrastructure capacity (eventually with over estimation of the real needs), increased congestion, pollution and other external costs. To solve this problem pricing and financing schemes have emerged all over Europe during the las