A Study of a Community Franchise Business Model of Public Transport Service Delivery

An unusual and unreported business model of public transport, known locally as a Community Franchise, was identified operating in a large Italian ski field. It is investigated by case study and compared to other more conventional ways of providing ski lifting services. The similarities between ski lifting and public transport are used to construct a hypothetical application of the regime to an urban setting. The study establishes the ways that the regime functions and how it differs from more conventional models of urban public transport in ownership, funding, and incentives. There is no explanation in the literature for the way that this regime undertakes network planning or the effects of franchisees owning and operating the individual lines of transport. A definition of design, broader than the dictionary definition, is suggested to bridge between the normal and the observed resource allocation processes. A computer game is used to experimentally investigate aspects of the ways a centrally directed network functions compared to one where individual lines of the network are owned by competing, profit-orientated franchisees. This experiment establishes that there is no significant difference to a measure of social welfare between the centrally planned version and one where competing franchisee providers maximize their profit. The principal study objective of evaluating the possible application of the regime to urban public transport is approached by canvassing a group of experts who provided anonymous responses to questions about its hypothetical application to the city of Sydney. There is little consensus in the expert view of the urban application of this regime, but an overall indication of its possible application to this role