Performance measurement in public service contracts for Local Transport

the measurement of the performance in the sector of the public transportation has recently create a great interest in Italy and in

the world. After the reform that involved the Local Public Transport (LPT) at the end of 90’s, a very important role is played by public

authorities (regions, municipalities and mobility agencies where existing). By the way, the main tool to regulate properly LPT is

represented by the Contract for Services introduced in order to define the mutual engagements between municipalities and local operators

in terms of duration, quality of service, fares, allocation of revenues, subsidies and incentives. In particular, it allows to measure the

performance of an articulated system and, consequently, to analyse the factors determining services evaluation. The research method is

based on “collective case studies”, split up in three main stages. The first one consists of two connected parts. The first one is to fix the

legal and economic framework of the LPT and of the Contract for Services, the second one is investigating the theoretical perspectives on

PPMM and on PVM to hypothesize the reshaping of the Contract based on new measurement Model of the performance. In that case,

the method used is the creation of a set of economic and social performance indicators selected to allow municipalities or the Agency in

charge, to plan, to monitor and to evaluate the public value create by LPT company in Region Emilia Romagna. That set of indicators

has been estimated on the Ferrara area. In the second stage the work describes and applies to the Region Emilia Romagna the proposed

measurement Model, testing the perceived usefulness by careful interviews to the general managers and/or to the administrators of the

parts involved, transport operators and organizing authorities. In the last stage, the paper analyses the results of the interviews in order

to confirm, redefine or reject the new measurement Model proposed and for extrapolate the perceived usefulness arise from the possible

inclusion in the next Contracts for Services of the Region Emilia Romagna districts. The results obtained suggests that the new proposed

model achieves a good balance for the joint improvement of the economic and social dimensions of the LPT. Furthermore the research

said that one of the most mentioned enabling condition is a programming and control system supported by rewarding elements and

penalties. According to the public value theory, the new Model proposed can be the right completion of that system, in the perspective of

the public value creation both for the demand and supply of the LPT.