A simplified approach to the determination of standard cost in local public transport [Un approccio semplificato al calcolo del costo standard nel trasporto pubblico locale]

The issue of standard costs and the related considerations about the optimal sizes of Local Public Transport (LPT) networks and operators have been the subject of a number of legislative acts and of several studies adopting various kinds of modelling approaches. The aim of the present work is to provide an easy-to-use analytical tool for the determination of standard costs of bus services. To this end, we propose a simplified approach to the calculation of average costs, using as a single independent variable the amount of service time supplied to users, while the effects of structural factors of the LPT sector and of operators’ strategies are taken into account by means of appropriate parameters. In order to support quantitatively the proposed methodology, the model has been calibrated using data of ten small- and medium-sized Italian bus companies operating in both urban and intercity contexts. Despite the relatively small size of the sample, the obtained results suggest that the proposed model can reproduce adequately actual cost values. Hence, we conclude that this study may contribute significantly to the ongoing debate about standard costs of LPT services.