Estonian Road Administration overview of tasks related to public transport management

1. Estonian Road Administrationoverview of tasks related to public transport management 6 May 2013

2. Estonian Road Admistration The Estonian Road Administration (ERA) is a government agency operating within the administrative area of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. The main functions of the Road Administration : • road management and creating conditions for safe traffic on national roads; • state and owner’s supervision over road construction and road maintenance • increasing traffic safety and reducing harmful environmental impact of vehicles; • organization of traffic • management of public transport; • keeping state registers of roads, vehicles and public transport; • participating in the elaboration of legislation, policies, strategies and development plans in the ERA’s area of activity;

3. Road Administration’sregional institutions: • Road Administration of the Northern Region • Road Administration of the Western Region • Road Administration of the Eastern Region • Road Administration of the Southern Region

4. Public Transport Department Administration’s structural unit responsible for the execution of following tasks:   Elaboration of the framework documents of public passenger service contracts . Advising county governments on matters related to awarding of public service contracts and conducting public procurements. Management of commercial long distance bus services by granting line permits and approving service schedules. Assessing the need and preparing the proposal for the allocation of state subsidy for public bus services Elaborating bus network design principles and conducting corresponding analysis Maintenance and development of State Public Transport Register Participating in development of legislation in the field on public transport

5. Public transport network Annual volume of regular passenger services (buses) • Urban regular services: 36,2M km (5 major cities – Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Narva, Kohtla-Järve) • County lines operatedunder public service contracts: 33,5M km • County lines operated on commercial basis: ca 12M km • Domestic long distance bus lines: 27,5M km • The state has currently awarded a total of 49 public service contracts for provision of regular bus services.

6. Public passenger services on county lines 2001-2012

7. State subsidy for public bus services on county lines 2001-2012 (M€)

8. Funding sources of public county bus service From bottom to top: 1) State subsidy 2)Ticket revenue 3) Subsidy paid by local municipalities 4) Other revenues (advertisement etc)

9. Measures needed to improve the situation • Provision on more flexible and cost effective transport services in rural areas with low population density (e.g. on demand service, community car pooling) • Clear definition of pursued public passenger service level. (e.g. number of connections provided based on area’s population density and available public services). • Continuous adaption and improvement of line network to meet changing needs of inhabitants - incl coordination between county bus service, long distance lines and rail services • Increasing the local governments share in subsidising public bus services. This can be (and has been) done by reconciling county bus services with the school bus services. The subsidy previously paid by municipalities to provide school bus service would be reallocated to subsidise public county lines.

10. The regulation of commericial long distance bus services • 90-95% of long distance bus lines are operated on commercial basis under line permits. • The line network has mainly developed on the basis of demand by passengers • The state intervenes in provision of long distance commercial services only to establish conditions that support the stability and safety of the service. • These conditions however determine minimal prerequisites for market access. • Proposals for the amendment of current regulations to facilitate market access have been submitted by carriers

11. Overview of the current legislation §34 A carrier shall be granted a line permit without a public competition if the carrier: 1) applies for a line permit to service a line to be opened on the carrier's initiative; 2) applies for a line permit to service a line which the carrier has hitherto serviced. §41 An agency which grants line permits may refuse to grant a line permit if an applicant for a line permit owes tax arrears or if it becomes known that: 2) the line for the servicing of which the permit is applied for would interfere with regular services currently provided on the basis of a line permit granted earlier except if the services in question are provided by a single carrier;

12. The principles stipulated in the new draft version of Public Transport Act An agency which grants line permits may refuse to grant a line Permit if it becomes known that: the line for the servicing of which the permit is applied is already serviced on the same route by more than one carrier and considering the conditions of carriage of applied line permit it is detected that overall quality of the planned service is not equivalent or better than the existing service. This amendment creates an opportunity to enter the market and commence the provision of long distance service on any route under the condition that the new service meets the quality of an existing service. This also ensures that even if the existing service is terminated due to increasing competition, the overall availability and quality of the service shall not decrease.

13. How is it implemented? • Estonian Road Administration is currently elaborating a sub-document which describes in detail how shall the submitted applications for granting line permit and approving timetables are evaluated. • The aformentioned “overall quality of service“ is measured on the basis of: • Service stability and frequency (all weekdays vs. some weekdays, year around service vs seasonal service • Area of availabilty of service (lines with more stops ensure service not only for inhabitants of large centres but also for the inhabitants of smaller areas. Therefore an advantage is given to them. • Other quality charecteristics • use of buses facilitating wheelchair access, • possibilityto purchase tickets from different channels • age of buses used

14. Thank you for the attention Questions and discussion