According to statistics from the "China Urban Passenger Transport Development Report (2021)", as of the end of 2020, there were 4,252 urban bus and tram operators in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China, including 1,374 state-owned enterprises (accounting for 32.3%), There are 410 state-controlled enterprises (accounting for 9.6%), 2101 private enterprises (accounting for 49.4%), etc. On March 25, 2022, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a National Unified Market" was officially issued. The document pointed out that building a national unified market is the basic support and inherent requirement for building a new development pattern. Urban public transportation is a special industry related to the national economy and people's livelihood. It has natural monopoly and economies of scale, a unique market structure, and significant industry characteristics. It belongs to the category of quasi-public products and public services, and has the dual attributes of public welfare and business. How to further expand and strengthen public transportation in the context of building and supporting a new urban development pattern requires strategic and forward-looking considerations.

    1. The historical development trajectory shows that bus market integration is the development trend

Throughout the history of public transportation, the reform of urban public transportation operation models in my country has roughly gone through the following three historical stages:

The first stage: the initial stage (early founding of the People's Republic of China - 1978). Urban buses are state-owned public welfare undertakings and are operated by state-owned bus companies. Public transportation services are completely dependent on government supply, and the government provides public transportation services in the form of state-owned enterprises through subsidies. By the end of the 1970s, various public transportation problems began to emerge. More and more people were flocking to cities. Problems such as insufficient bus capacity and inadequate public transportation facilities became increasingly acute. At this stage, all costs of bus operations come from government subsidies. The state-owned bus companies lack a competition mechanism, which prevents the buses themselves from improving business management, reducing operating costs, and improving economic benefits. As a result, the bus companies suffer serious losses, old vehicles, and It has a large staff and relies on huge government subsidies every year to operate in an inefficient manner.

The second stage: the reform exploration stage (1979-2007). After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, social and economic development accelerated, and public transportation companies began to update their concepts and accelerate development. Through operating forms such as establishing limited liability companies, implementing asset swaps, and absorbing private capital and foreign investment, they optimized and optimized to the greatest extent. Transform operational lines. In April 1985, the State Council forwarded the "Report on Reforming Urban Public Transport" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") proposed by the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development and Environmental Protection. The "Report" believed that the pace of reform must be accelerated based on the actual situation of public transportation. "Revitalizing urban public transportation", the "Report" clearly proposed to "change the exclusive operation system of urban public transportation and implement multiple operations and unified management." At this stage, the degree of liberalization of the bus market exceeded initial expectations. The excessive segmentation of the bus market in many places has brought adverse consequences, such as vicious competition, competition for customers, duplication of routes, and poor service quality.

The third stage: the return of public welfare (2008 to present). After the second stage of "liberation", the common problems in the urban bus market include chaotic management, blind pursuit of profit, and frequent safety accidents, which have aroused deep reflection from all walks of life. In 2004, the Ministry of Construction issued the "Opinions on Prioritizing the Development of Urban Public Transport", which clearly positioned urban public transport as a "social welfare undertaking related to the national economy and people's livelihood." The talk about the reform of the public transportation industry has changed from "revitalization" to "state-owned leadership, multi-party participation, large-scale operation, and orderly competition." At this stage, various localities gradually began to think about how to reshape the public welfare positioning of urban public transportation, rather than starting from profitability, and began to merge and reorganize public transportation companies, focusing on restoring state-owned or state-controlled public transportation companies as the main body. Public welfare of public transportation.

     In 2016, the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan Development Outline for Urban Public Transport" (hereinafter referred to as the "Outline") issued by the Ministry of Transport clearly stated: "Government-led and market-operated. Adhere to the public welfare attribute of urban public transportation, implement urban public transportation resource allocation, Government-led responsibilities such as service quality supervision, fare formulation and adjustment, etc.; implementation of corporate responsibilities such as urban bus service provision, safety production, cost control, etc.; and encouragement of enterprise scale operations and moderate competition." In addition, the "Outline" also pointed out that "combine Classified reform of state-owned enterprises, in accordance with the principle of 'scale operation, moderate competition', appropriately integrate urban bus operating entities; improve the modern enterprise system and state-owned assets management system, improve the efficiency and capacity of urban bus services; introduce market mechanisms to improve the efficiency and capacity of urban bus services capabilities; strengthen supervision, establish and improve a decision-making implementation supervision mechanism with equal rights and responsibilities, coordinated operations, and effective checks and balances; encourage urban public transportation enterprises to appropriately carry out other business operations related to the main business of transportation services, and improve the financial status of enterprises." May 2017. Article 6 of the "Regulations on the Management of Urban Bus and Tram Passenger Transport" (Ministry of Transport Order No. 5, 2017), which will be implemented on the 1st, states that "the state encourages urban bus and tram passenger transport operating enterprises to implement large-scale and intensive operations." "Scale operation" means the integration of resources, while "government leadership" and "moderate competition" point out the direction.

    At present, the urban bus market has entered the "acquisition" stage, and various places have adopted mergers and reorganizations of existing bus companies under various ownerships to form a new bus company. In 2006, Dalian Public Transport Group Co., Ltd. was established to integrate the resources of 10 bus companies, change the pattern of decentralized and independent operation of bus companies, and create a platform and conditions for Dalian Public Transport to achieve unified planning, intensive operation, resource integration, and deepening reform. Nanjing originally had 7 bus companies with multiple ownership systems coexisting. In 2013, Nanjing Public Transport (Group) Co., Ltd. signed an agreement with Accor Bus Group, which is controlled by Hong Kong stocks, and merged the 7 bus companies into 3 fully affiliated companies under the state-owned bus group company. It has subsidiaries (Jiangnan Bus and Passenger Transport Co., Ltd., Yangzi Bus and Passenger Transport Co., Ltd., Xincheng Bus Co., Ltd.) and a bus station Co., Ltd., forming a main business of urban bus operation and station construction and management, including taxis, driving schools, teaching A pattern of simultaneously promoting diversified operations such as training and property management. In 2002, Chongqing integrated the operating assets of state-owned public transportation enterprises and used the assets as a link to form the state-controlled Chongqing Public Transport Holding (Group) Co., Ltd., and in accordance with the idea of ​​"regional operation", it has four wholly-owned bus operation subsidiaries (Southern Bus Company, Western Bus Company, Northern Bus Company, Liangjiang Bus Company), from the perspective of business operations, the group company is only responsible for the management of fares, personnel and bus line permits. On December 23, 2021, Guangzhou Bus Group was officially unveiled. The newly established Guangzhou Bus Group is affiliated to Guangzhou Public Transport Group Co., Ltd. and combines Guangzhou Public Transport Group Second Bus Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Public Transport Group Third Bus Co., Ltd., The strategic reorganization of Guangzhou Public Transport Group Tram Co., Ltd. and its transfer into the state-owned equity of Guangzhou FAW Bus Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Rapid Transit Operation and Management Co., Ltd. mark the in-depth integration of Guangzhou's state-owned public transportation resources and its move towards higher-quality development. On May 17, 2021, Changsha Public Transport Group Co., Ltd. was officially unveiled, integrating the city's original 8 public transport companies into 1, opening a new milestone in the reform and development of Changsha's public transport industry.

    Judging from the historical development trajectory, bus market integration is the main theme. All bus resources must be planned and managed in a unified manner. Splitting or dividing the existing bus market is definitely not the trend and direction of bus development and must be done with caution. Splitting the market in order to blindly pursue competition does not rule out the possibility that in the market competition environment where bus companies are pursuing lower operating costs and improved economic benefits, vicious local market competition, competition for passenger flow, duplication of routes, and to a certain extent may occur. It may lead to chaotic order in the bus market, which is not conducive to the unified planning and unified management of bus network, station facilities, vehicles and other bus resources, causing problems such as resource waste or low resource utilization efficiency. Some remote urban and rural and suburban buses in remote areas The timely opening of lines will be restricted, or due to inconsistencies in policies and service standards, it will inevitably affect the equalization of bus travel services for urban and rural residents, making it difficult for rural people to truly enjoy the same level of public transportation services as urban residents.

    2. Core issues of the bus operation market

Urban public transportation is the most typical quasi-public good, which is obviously non-competitive, non-exclusive and public welfare. The consumption behavior of public goods consumers cannot reduce the consumption benefits of other consumers. The relationship between public goods consumers is non-competitive; and from the perspective of public goods supply, within a certain range, the number of consumers increases The marginal cost is approximately zero. The "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan Development Outline for Urban Public Transport" officially issued by the Ministry of Transport on July 25, 2016 gave a clear positioning of the public welfare attribute of urban public transport, that is, "urban public transport is to meet the basic travel needs of the people. The social public welfare undertakings that are in demand are closely related to the production and life of the people, and are the basic public services and major livelihood projects that the government should provide." At the same time, as a production enterprise, urban public transportation enterprises also have a certain operating nature and have a distinct duality. From the perspective of the supply and demand of urban public transportation, urban public transportation should be uniformly supplied, managed, and planned by the government. The operation of public transportation needs to be led by the government and encourage bus companies to improve operating conditions and provide better urban public transportation. Let the people be willing to take public transportation and take more public transportation.

    At this stage, from the perspective of the domestic public transportation enterprise operating market, the distribution of ownership forms of China's urban public transportation enterprises in central urban areas mainly has the following modes: 1 state-owned enterprise or state-controlled enterprise; 2 to 3 enterprises, with state-owned enterprises occupying the dominant position. ; Some cities have more than three bus companies. Judging from the level of public transportation services in various places, the number and ownership forms of public transportation companies are not necessarily related to market order and service quality. One company monopolizing the market does not necessarily mean poor service, and a few companies do not necessarily lead to chaos. Judging from foreign development experience, this is also the case. All 66 bus companies in Seoul are privately owned. Seoul bus passenger satisfaction has increased year by year, and the number of passengers transported throughout the year reached 1.65 billion. Therefore, the ownership form of public transportation enterprises is not necessarily related to market order and service quality. State-owned enterprises do not necessarily provide good services, and private enterprises do not necessarily provide poor services. The key is how to set service quality standards through operational service agreements and establish a scientific and reasonable subsidy mechanism based on service quality.

    Article 14 of the "Regulations on the Administration of Urban Bus and Tram Passenger Transport" (Ministry of Transport Order No. 5 of 2017) implemented on May 1, 2017 states: "Urban public transport authorities shall operate according to scale and moderate competition. In accordance with the principle, factors such as transport capacity allocation, public demand, and public safety shall be comprehensively considered, operating enterprises shall be selected through service quality bidding, and urban bus and tram line operating rights shall be granted.” Article 57 states: “Urban public transportation supervisors The department should establish a service quality evaluation system for operating enterprises, regularly evaluate the service quality of operating enterprises and announce it to the public. The evaluation results should be used as the basis for measuring the operating performance of operating enterprises, issuing government subsidies and managing line operating rights." Therefore, in the following In a bus operation market based on the principles of scale operation and moderate competition, and guided by service quality bidding, the core issue lies not in the form of ownership, but in the government's need to regulate the market entry and exit of urban buses and establish a set of scientific and standardized The bus line operation rights granting system, cost regulation accounting system and service quality evaluation system will improve the quality of bus service.

Source: Jinan Urban Transportation Research Center