Are users better-off with new transit lines?

Moez Kilani (1) , André de Palma (2) , Stef Proost (3)

1 EQUIPPE - Economie Quantitative, Intégration, Politiques Publiques et Econométrie
2 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
3 KU Leuven - Catholic University of Leuven = Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

This paper studies the entry of new competitors in public transport like long distance busses that compete with rail. A stylized model is used that analyzes the addition of a new more direct line in an existing network. We show that the introduction of the new line is only beneficial if there are relatively many users that want to use the new direct line. Our result raises serious concerns with respect to the decentralized management of transit systems.

Mots clés: Transport investment; public transport; externalities 1

Domaines: Économie et finance quantitative [q-fin]; Gestion des risques [q-fin.RM]

Moez Kilani, André de Palma, Stef Proost. Are users better-off with new transit lines?. 2016. ⟨hal-01282877⟩