DESIGNING PUBLIC TRANSIT COMPETITIVE CONTRACTING PROGRAMS: THE PUBLIC PERSPECTIVE. FINAL REPORT

Competitive contracting is a cost-effective service used for the delivery of public transit services by public agencies. This report states that the success of competitive contracting rests on 2 crucial issues: full public control and cost-effective services. The purpose of this research is to review cases in competitive contracting design and to make recommendations for practices favorable to public agencies competitively contracting public transit services. In depth interviews were conducted with administrators of these programs as well as detailed analyses of actual contracts in each of the cases. More mature programs were surveyed to capture the long term lessons and to assess the attitudes of the more experienced contract administrators. Contracts surveyed in this study covered all major classifications of public transit services--fixed-route and demand responsive. Detailed contract analyses and interviews were conducted with the following services: San Diego County, Milwaukee County, Suffolk County (New York), Hammond (Indiana), Ann Arbor (Michigan), Johnson County (Kansas), Yolo County (California), Miami (Florida), Carson (California), Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), and Fort Wayne (Indiana). In each of the cases, private companies provided service operations including maintenance and use of their own vehicles. This research examines and discusses competitive contracting and the public purpose as well as the following areas related to competitive contracting: Procurement Process, Service and Contract Design, Monitoring Contracted Services, Assessment of Competitive Contracting Experiences, and Principles of Successful Contracting Design.

• Corporate Authors:

  American Bus Association

  1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 308
  Washington, DC  United States  20036

  Urban Mass Transportation Administration

  400 7th Street, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • COX, W
  • LOVE, J
• Publication Date: 1988-12

Media Info

• Pagination: 38 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Competition; Contracting; Design; Public transit
• Identifier Terms: Urban Mass Transportation Act
• Uncontrolled Terms: Transit services
• Old TRIS Terms: Umta section 6
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Design; Finance; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00487998
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Urban Mass Transportation Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: UMTA-DC-06-0570-88-1
• Contract Numbers: UMTA-DC-06-0570
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 30 1989 12:00AM