SAMPO, an approach of demand-responsive transport services

摘要

Finland achieved full membership of the European Union on 1 January 1995. This membership required the harmonisation of Finnish public transport (PT) laws, which had quite a drastic effect on PT. Ten years ago, municipalities outside the three main cities of the country did not spend any money on public transport. Most of the bus operations were and are self-supporting and cover operational costs with fare revenue. The regular lines needed licences from PT authorities. Before membership, one licence included the running of profitable and non-profitable lines, as negotiated with PT officers at regional authorities or the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MinTC). After 1995 it was no longer possible to combine profitable and non-profitable services in one licence. This caused a drop in services in sparsely populated or remote areas, even quite near cities, but this change had advantages too. In negotiations, a shrewd operator could in many ways present some of its operations as expensive, although they were actually profitable, and could therefore avoid having some poor services in his licence. In order to solve the transport problem, a programme of demand-responsive transport was implemented in the so-called SAMPO region near Helsinki.