(ii)
Interurban
passenger transport
19.
Interurban
passenger transport is mainly supplied by coaches, and marginally by taxis
whose regime was briefly examined above.
This sector is characterized by poor economies of scale and low access
costs. Sector concentration is very
uneven depending on the country. It is
low in developing countries and countries such as France or Australia. On the other hand, it is very high in the
United States and in the United Kingdom, where in both cases a
quasi-duopoly has been replaced by a quasi-monopoly (Greyhound in the United
States, National Express in the United Kingdom) following the buyout of the
principal competitor.
20.
In this
competitive situation control of coach stations and terminals has been a
decisive factor. These stations are
given separate mention in the CPC road transport classification and it is
possible to imagine rules on access to and non-discriminatory use of this
infrastructure being developed, where necessary, along the lines of those which
already exist in maritime transport and, to a lesser extent, in
telecommunications and might also be introduced in rail transport or indeed in
connection with the allocation of slots in air transport.
21.
Although
it has often taken over from the railways when loss-making lines have been
closed, the sector appears to be in long-term decline due to the steady
increase in private car ownership. It is
also symptomatic that a large proportion of its customers do not themselves own
cars (young people, the elderly).
22.
Interurban
passenger transport covers transport of several types: regular services
(providing passenger transport accessible to all over a specified route
according to a timetable for a set fare with passengers being picked up and set
down at predetermined stopping points), shuttle services (organized transport
of previously formed groups of passengers, by means of repeated outward and
return journeys, from a single place of departure to a single destination) and
occasional services which do not fall within the definition of either a regular
or a shuttle service.
23.
Occasional
services and shuttle services are generally run as purely market activities
(although in international traffic they are often required to operate within a
certain regulatory framework), whereas regular services are more strictly regulated
and sometimes operated by a public authority (the Swiss postal buses, for
example) or under a concession arrangement.
This is because local regular services, especially in rural or mountain
areas, are not always profitable and therefore can only be financed by
equalization (cross subsidization) or by subsidies.
24.
As in road
transport, the regulations mainly go back to the '30s and were inspired by the
same concern to limit competition with the railways (hence the rules on prices,
entry, withdrawal and sometimes on numbers and services) and to obtain
assurances with regard to the reputation and solvency of the carrier, the
safety of the vehicle and the observance by the drivers of the driving and rest
periods requirements to which must be added, in the case of regular services,
public service regulatory considerations:
networks, timetables, and access to transport for people living in
remote areas.
25.
These
sectors, too, have experienced partial internal deregulation, for example in
Great Britain the liberalization of long-distance passenger transport in
1980 and local (in some cases interurban) services in 1985, the partial
liberalization of passenger transport in Sweden (1989) and in the Netherlands
(1988), and the American deregulation of the "Bus Deregulatory Reform
Act" of 1982 which reduced the tariff-setting powers of the Interstate
Commerce Commission up to 1996 and then those of its successor the Surface
Transportation Board (carriers are still required to file tariffs but the STB
may not suspend the rate unless it is shown to be predatory or discriminatory).
26.
In
interurban passenger transport, the World Bank has focussed on reducing the
barriers to the informal supply of transport and on devising effective subsidy
programmes for the "social service" of public transport by defining
public service obligations and establishing fiscally sustainable contractual
compensation arrangements.
27.
The effect
of this internal liberalization has been a reduction in prices, a reduction in
wages, a fall in profits and an in increase in employment. The effect on traffic has been extremely
varied, partly because it depends on external factors such as intermodal
competition. Thus, in the United Kingdom
traffic almost doubled in five years, rising from 9 to 15 million passengers,
before falling back almost to its initial level after another five years. Similarly, in the United States deregulation
increased the number of carriers and led to sharp growth in the areas of
charter and tour or special operations, whereas regular route traffic
experienced a decline.
28.
Most
interurban trade takes place within the frontiers of a single State and thus
mainly involves the commercial presence mode.
29.
The
international traffic is by nature intra-continental and dominated by links
between areas at different levels of development (for example, from North
Africa and Southern Europe to Northern Europe for immigrant workers, from
Eastern Europe to Western Europe for tourists), since it provides a cheaper
alternative to rail or private car transport.
30.
This
international traffic is generally regulated by bilateral agreements which
establish tariffs and quantitative restrictions and divide the traffic between
the two States concerned. It too has begun to be liberalized, mostly at the
regional level. Thus, in the European
Community, shuttle services, occasional services and cabotage were liberalized
in the context of the construction of a single transport market. Similarly, passenger transport was included
in the model bilateral agreement of the European Conference of Transport
Ministers which brings together the countries of Western Europe, on the one
hand, and those of Central and Eastern Europe, on the other. This model bilateral agreementconstitutes
a first step towards the multilateralization of bilateral agreements and
endeavours to limit the number of cases in which authorization is required and
to extend the period of validity of authorizations (up to five years). Similarly, passenger road transport falls
within the scope of NAFTA, with limited reservations mainly concerning cabotage
traffic.
31.
Modes 2
and 4 do not seem to have any real relevance for this sector.
32.
Apart from
the general barriers to road transport (see paragraphs 52 to 59), the transport
professionals represented by the International Road Transport Union have only
identified one barrier specific to passenger transport: the bans and restrictions on coach movements
and parking in cities and tourist centres.
(b)
Freight
transport
33.
Clearly,
freight transport by road is the principal mode of freight transport: in the European Community its modal split
share is 72.3 per cent (1995, in tonne/kilometres) and increased by 155 per
cent between 1970 and 1995, i.e. almost tripled in volume, whereas during the
same period rail transport recorded a decline in absolute value (-22 per cent)
and a halving of its share. Road
transport takes a smaller share of the modal split in the countries of Central
and Eastern Europe: 41.5 per cent in
1995, but there also it is progressing, whereas rail transport is in
decline. In the United States the modal
split share is even smaller: 28.9 per
cent, whereas railways still account for 40.9 per cent of the tonne/kilometres
transported; however, in value terms,
transport represents about 80 per cent and in volume terms its rate of growth
(+123 per cent between 1970 and 1995) is very much higher than that of rail
transport (+70.6 per cent).
34.
Freight
transportation by road also plays an essential role in the developing
countries, particularly in those which did not develop an extensive rail
network during the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th
century (generally speaking, this applies to Latin American countries and
African countries lacking cross-rail links).
35.
In the
absence of detailed traffic statistics, one way of estimating the relative
importance of the different markets worldwide is to compare the numbers of
trucks duly registered in the various countries. Altogether, Africa has 5.62 million goods
vehicles, or 3.33 per cent of the total (the largest fleets being in South
Africa: 1.73 million, in Egypt: 1.28 million, in Algeria: 0.87 million, in Zaire: 0.55 million, in Libya: 0.31 million, in Tunisia: 0.28 million, and in Morocco: 0.27 million), America has 80.43 million
goods vehicles or 47.64 per cent of the total (United States: 65.46 million, Mexico: 4.22 million, Canada: 3.72 million, Brazil: 2.76 million, Argentina: 1.23 million, and Chile: 0.81 million), Asia has 45.22 million goods
vehicles or 26.8 per cent of the total (Japan:
21.93 million, China: 6.22
million, Thailand: 4.13 million, South
Korea: 2.65 million, India: 2.2 million,
Indonesia: 2 million, and Saudi
Arabia: 1.17 million), Oceania has 2.63
million goods vehicles or 1.56 per cent of the total (Australia: 2.24 million and New Zealand: 0.35 million), the whole of Europe has 34.78
million or 20.6 per cent of the total, including 22.99 million for the European
Community (France: 5.25 million,
Germany: 3.74 million, Spain: 3.48 million, United Kingdom: 3.19 million, and Italy: 2.88 million), 5.01 million for the Russian
Federation, 1.79 million for Turkey, and 1.47 million for Poland.
36.
These
figures should be deflated by deducting the proportion of the fleet used for
transport on own account, a proportion which varies from country to country
depending on the organization of the sector (for example, in the member
countries of the OECD it is between 40 and 60 per cent). They also give a better picture of the size
of the domestic market in each country than of the international traffic. Thus, the Netherlands with a fleet of 680,000
goods vehicles does not appear in this brief summary although it is one of the
biggest players on the European international transport scene.