2. Budget shortfalls

Figure 1: LPT Ridership Trends in Select Cities as of Nov. 11

from Europe show that local travel by private car, which also dropped heavily early on in the pandemic, had surpassed pre-pandemic levels by early July, threatening to increase congestion and negative environmental impacts.7

2. BUDGET SHORTFALLS The decrease in public transport usage has meant a massive loss in revenues from fares, at the same time as income from dedicated taxes and local government subsidies has dropped. Together with increased operating costs due to intensified cleaning and disinfection measures and the addition

7 https://osservatoriocpi.unicatt.it/cpi-archivio-studi-e-analisi-fine-del-lockdown-e-ripresa-della-mobilita?fbclid=IwAR0Hyodx7gkuX2WN_2w3NXvRT7lCbAazHsUXmduEdcQ1pEn2nWCVW7aWCxA; G. Lozzi, et. al., Covid-19 and Urban Mobility: Impacts and perspectives, European Parliament TRAN Committee, September 2020, 6-7, 10-11. of services to enable social distancing in some cases, this has led to huge budget shortfalls for local public transport authorities (PTAs) and operators (PTOs).8 In March, the TransitCenter, an American public transport advocacy group, published research showing that PTAs in the United States would face shortfalls of between USD26 to 40 billion over the next 12 months, depending on social distancing measures.9 In May, the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) projected that public transport operators in Europe would face a loss of EUR40 billion by the end of 2020.10 Given that the world is now facing a new surge in Covid-19 cases, and many cities throughout Europe and North America are going into a second phase of lockdowns, it is clear that these numbers will continue to increase into 2021.

8 Given the global scope of this paper, there is a need to generalise the structure of local public transport systems, which are in fact organised very differently from country to country, and even among different cities and municipalities within the same country. I use ‘public transport authority’ (PTA) to refer to (usually) public entities responsible for organising, administering and managing public transport services in a given area. In reality, the scope of the mandate, authority and responsibilities of the entities to which I refer vary greatly. In North America, the common term is ‘transit agency’ (‘metropolitan transit authority’ or MTA in the case that the entity has jurisdiction over a metropolitan area). Terms used in Europe include ‘public transport authority’ (PTA), transport association (verkehrsverbund in German) or more generally ‘local and regional authorities’ (LRAs). PTAs may or may not operate a portion of transport services in-house. Companies that operate LPT services are referred to ‘public transport operator’ (PTO).

9 https://transitcenter.org/estimated-financial-impact-of-covid19-on-u-s-transit-agencies-26-38-billion-annually/#_ftn6