Partnerships between operators and public transport authorities. Working practices in relational contracting and collaborative partnerships

Robert Hrelja, Tom Rye, Caroline Mullen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Recent research on public transport has seen increasing focus on issues like coordination, collaboration and steering in complex governance settings. One of the themes in this field of research is related to partnership approaches, as one way of stimulating functioning collaboration between formally independent private and public organisations. The aim of this paper is to explore the role and function of partnerships as a way of supporting well-functioning public transport networks and services in fragmented institutional settings. The empirical focus is on partnerships between operators and public (transport) authorities in two different legal settings: England and Sweden. The analysis is based on interviews with operators and public transport authorities in two metropolitan regions in each country where innovative partnership working has been developed to deal with various types of barriers to delivering better public transport. The results show the key qualities of these partnerships that are required for them to function. Although the regulatory contexts are very different, the partnership qualities are very similar in both cases.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)327-338
Number of pages12
JournalTransportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
Volume116
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018 Oct 1
Externally publishedYes

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Transport Systems and Logistics

Free keywords

  • Collaboration
  • Governance
  • Organisation
  • Public transport
  • Relational contracting

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Partnerships between operators and public transport authorities. Working practices in relational contracting and collaborative partnerships'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this