[sustran] Re: (fwd) [UTSG] transport strategy transfer

[Jonathan E. D. Richmond]

Sure, I'd be happy to be involved with this! --Jonathan

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004, Brendan Finn wrote:

> Jonathon,
>
> I'd be interested to do a bit of information exchange on this one. I'm
> currently doing some work with the UPT sector in Russia and later this year
> in Kazakstan. While people in cities such as St. Petersburg generally have
> affordability, there are many Russian cities where things are extremely
> tight. Premium services have a market everywhere, but as we move down the
> food chain we start to hit the financial impossibility of the
> 'socially-affordable fare' in many places. The burden has to be carried
> somewhere - by the taxpayer, the operator, or by the user. In Russia, it has
> often been the public-sector operator who gets badly squeezed.
>
> Maybe a few people who are interested in this topic could take it off-line
> and exchange ideas. Your research might act as a useful focal point where a
> number of people working in the domain could document case studies and
> comparable data ?
>
> With best wishes,
>
>
> Brendan Finn.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Contact details are : e-mail : etts at indigo.ie   tel : +353.87.2530286
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jonathan E. D. Richmond" <richmond at alum.mit.edu>
> To: "Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport"
> <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
> Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 7:49 AM
> Subject: [sustran] Re: (fwd) [UTSG] transport strategy transfer
>
>
> > On Sat, 24 Apr 2004, Brendan Finn wrote:
> >
> > > Jonathon,
> > >
> > > Taking Bangkok as an example, is there any practical way to provide bus
> > > services on a commercial basis at fares affordable to the poor with
> anything
> > > other than low-quality, low-cost buses ?
> >
> > I do not know yet. I expect this to be a subject of my research this
> > summer. One of my students is also going to be working on issues of
> > transit industry cost structures, so I hope to have some data later in the
> > year, although -- given the difficulties of pinning down anything of a
> > facual nature in this environment -- I cannot say that I will have
> > anything worthy of forming firm conclusions.
> >
> >
> >  If there is, I'd like to hear it,
> > > since it seems to be an intractable puzzle in many countries.
> > >
> > > My experience in the CIS is that you can cover direct operating costs of
> old
> > > vehicles at low fares. To move to a new vehicle - however basic -
> requires a
> > > premium fare compared to the "social" fare. In part this reflects the
> high
> > > cost of capital, linked to low security of tenure on the route, and
> hence
> > > higher interest both to reflect the risk and the lack of financial
> weight of
> > > the borrower. In greater part, though, is the relative cost of hard
> assets
> > > compared to the fares income. In Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, I
> have
> > > seen no shortage of takers for the premium fare services, which offer a
> much
> > > higher quality of service in the eyes of the users - a seat, speed,
> > > cleanliness, and much less unwanted proximity (especially for women). Of
> > > course, this leaves the social travel and the poorest with the low-cost
> > > services, leading them inexorably down the sinkhole.
> >
> > Exactly: and in Bangkok I think you will find that this group accounts for
> > a very large share of the population and -- particularly -- of the
> > transit-using population.
> >
>
>

-----

Jonathan E. D. Richmond                               02 524-5510 (office)
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