Improving the Urban Public Transport in Developing Countries:

The Design of a New Integrated System in Santiago de Chile

Antonio Gschwenderagschwen@yahoo.com

Thredbo 9

5-9 September 2005

Lisbon, Portugal

2

Santiago de Chile• Modal split (motorised trips)

• Public transport in 2003– Buses

• 380 lines, average length 60km• 8,000 buses• 4,000 private “companies”• No operational subsidy• Bad service

– Metro: good service (fast, reliable, clean)

Year Public

Transport (%)

Car (%)

Others (%)

1977 83.4 11.6 5.0

1991 70.5 19.7 9.8

2001 51.9 39.2 8.9

3

Diagnosis of the Bus System• Negative aspects

– On-the-street competition• High accident risk• Unpredictable waiting times

– Lack of cleaning and preventive maintenance

– Routes designed to compete with other bus lines and metro

– Institutional design• Absence of Transport Authority: attributions divided into many

public bodies

• Almost no participation of the authority in the planning of the system

4

Diagnosis of the Bus System

• Positive aspects– High frequencies

• Low waiting times

– High routes density• Low walking times

– Low transfers• Due to overlapping of many long routes

• ... and fare structure: ”pay each time you board”

– Positive aspects should be maintained

5

Main Aspects of theProposed New System

• New routes structure– Three

complementary networks

• Metro

• Main bus routes

• Feeder and local bus routes

6

Main Aspects of theProposed New System

• New fare structure and ticketing system– Integrated fare

• Bus and metro

• Reduced (zero) transfer fare

– Contactless smartcard• Only paying device

• Already used in the metro(1,4 million in 2004)

7

Main Aspects of the Proposed New System

• Transport authority externalises:– Operation of the buses– Finance administrator

• sells tickets• administrates revenues• provides ticket-reading machines

– Information manager• manages operational information• generates operational reports• users’ information

8

Main Aspects of theProposed New System

• New property structure for the bus industry: several big companies– Main routes

• 5 tendering units

• Some 500 buses each unit

– Feeder and local routes • 10 local areas = 10 tendering units

• Some 200 buses each unit

– Maximum 4 concessions per operator

9

Main Aspects of theProposed New System

• Financial balance– No operational subsidy

• And fares cannot rise

– New costs• Ticketing system

• Information manager

• Infrastructure in transfer points

– Reduction in bus operation costs• Better match between demand and capacity (coordination between

routes)

– Fares are a result of the tenders• 0.45 EUR estimated average adult fare

10

Additional Description of The Proposed New System

• Buses– 18m articulated buses

introduced– Fleet: 4,500 vehicles

• (Metro network is doubled)

• 1,600 new low floor/entrance

– Euro III emission norm

11

Additional Description of The Proposed New System

• Infrastructure plan: segregated busways (14km), transfer stations, etc.– Cost: 210 million EUR

• 25% publicly financed; 75% private investment charged to users’ fares

• Yearly cost of the system– 570 million EUR:

fares revenue

43% main bus routes

14% local and feeder buses

32% metro

5.5% infrastructure

5.5% finance adm. and information

manager

12

Final Comments• Current situation

– Design of the plan began in 2001– Bus operation tenders

• Awarded in January 2005• Between 2 and 8 offers per tender unit• Old and new (foreign and Chilean) operators

– Finance administrator• Awarded in April 2005

– Information manager• Not awarded yet

– Implementation • Begins in October 2005• Finish by the end of 2006

13

Final Comments• Change in the whole bus system

– Political dimension• Already tendered services (since 1991)• Very bad public opinion about current bus system• Successful experiences in other Latin-American cities (e.g. Bogotá)

– Technical dimension• Data availability• Modelling capacity: Joint design of 160 lines in a 5.4 million

inhabitants city– Design model– New bus routes: heuristics– New frequencies: min Cop+Cusers

• Knowledge of the particular situation

14

Final Comments• No strong political figure promoting and

defending the plan over all its steps– Together with unclear institutional design:

problems

• Competition existed in bus operation tenders– Financial risk of the bus operators was reduced by

several mechanisms

• Massive introduction of smartcard was attractive for banks

• Transfers increased from 0.2 to 0.8 per trip

15

Final Comments

• Some future challenges– Transport authority?– Congestion-free infrastructure for the buses– Extension of integrated fare to other modes– Travelcards?– Product differentiation? (price-quality)

16

END of the presentation

Improving the Urban Public Transport in Developing Countries:

The Design of a New Integrated System in Santiago de Chile

www.transantiago.cl

Antonio Gschwenderagschwen@yahoo.com

Thredbo 9

5-9 September 2005

Lisbon, Portugal

18

19

Fare Structure

20

Additional Description of The Proposed New System

• Financial risk of the bus operators– Reduced by:

• Minimum income guaranteed: between 85 and 60%

• Patronage semi-guaranteed: only 10% of the variation is transferred to operator

• Concession period can be extended up to 24 months if income is low

• Revenue adjustments in case of patronage changes due to commercial speed variations

• Compensation fund: assures payment in first months and if drops in the demand occur

• If fares reach an upper limit, measures to rationalise the use of car will be introduced

21

Additional Description of The Proposed New System

• Infrastructure plan– 14km of new segregated busways (11km already exist)

– 2 big interchange stations

– 35 smaller transfer stations

– Road surface and geometric improvements in 63km of main roads

– 2 strategic road connections

– Improvements of 5,000 busstops

– Cost: 210 million EUR• 25% publicly financed

• 75% private investment charged to the users’ fares

22

Additional Description of The Proposed New System

• Awards and penalties scheme– Income generated by the penalties is returned to the

operators (awards)

• Operators’ payment adjustment– Mathematical formula (production factors), as before– Impacts users’ fare

• Avoid need of legal changes• Avoid intensive requirements of new

infrastructure

23

Santiago de Chile• Motorisation rate

– 1977: 80 cars per 1,000 inhab– 2001: 148 cars per 1,000 inhab

• 10.2 million daily motorised trips• Modal split 2001:

– 36% walking– 26% bus– 24% car– 4% metro– 4% taxi and shared-taxi– 6% other modes

• 1,600 million trips in public transport in a year (2003)– 290 yearly trips per inhabitant in PT

24

END