Public transport is an important part of everyday mobility. Bus and rail services serve many mobility needs, in particular in urban areas. Furthermore, they are a key tool for achieving environmental quality objectives and ensure mobility for all parts of society. But to do so, it is essential that services are attractive and customer-friendly to be able to compete with the private car.

However, market forces which provide for an efficient and demand-orientated product in most industries, only play a very limited role in public transport. In most cases, buses and trains operate under monopoly conditions which leave the passengers with few possibilities for active choice. Instead, a strong political influence has shaped the provision of public transport services. This is also true where they are operated by private companies. Furthermore, consumer protection is limited compared to most other sectors.

Hence who listens to the passengers' voice? This is the main topic of the BUSREP project. The work is based on the assumption that due to these characteristics of the public transport system, dedicated, tailored approaches are necessary to ensure that the passengers' views are taken into account. In this sense, customer orientation requires passenger interests to be considered in all stages of the planning and production process.

The project team has examined the situation in several European countries: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Further examples were studied in Switzerland and Belgium. The leading question was: Which strategies are used by the stakeholders to make the passengers' voice heard?

This topic is of interest for transport operators, planners, politicians and scientists, consumer and environmental organisations as well as citizens' groups involved in transport.

Person in charge: Dr. Martin Schiefelbusch, Dipl.-Soz.-Wiss. Holger Jansen
Promoter: Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) www.vref.se
Duration: 01/2003 - 12/2007
Link: www.busrep.net, www.fut.se