ACM study: HTM is the most sustainable among the three major municipal public transport companies

HTM, which is active in the Dutch city of The Hague, is the most sustainable of the three municipal public transport companies in the three largest Dutch cities. This is one of the conclusions of a study that the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has carried out. As part of that study, ACM looked at several parameters: cost effectiveness and efficiency, sustainability, and quality.

The comparison paints a nuanced pictuce of these companies. Although HTM scores the highest on sustainability, it scores lower on cost effectiveness and efficiency. Rotterdam’s RET scores the highest on cost effectiveness and efficiency, but the lowest on sustainability. Amsterdam’s GVB is the most allround company with neither the highest or lowest scores on any of the parameters. All three of them have similar scores on quality.

Reason for the comparison

The three municipal transport companies operate on the basis of concessions that have been directly awarded (concessions are permits granted by the municipalities for the operation of public transportation in their respective cities). They do not need to compete with other companies for these concessions. In the Dutch Passenger Transport Act 2000, it has been laid down that ACM carries out a comparative performance evaluation in order to stimulate municipal public-transport companies to improve their services. The study for this report was carried out in 2019 and 2020, but the results have been primarily based on the 2019 figures, because the COVID-19 pandemic had too large an influence on the 2020 study.

Sustainability

“We added sustainability as a parameter to the performance evaluation because of the growing importance thereof to society and of the role that public transportation can be play in making mobility more sustainable”, says Manon Leijten, Member of the Board of ACM. HTM had the highest score on sustainability because its CO2 emissions per passenger-kiliometer is the lowest. HTM consumes green electricity, and also operates buses that are either carbon-neutral or run on green natural gas. In 2019, RET had, by far, the highest CO2 emissions per passenger-kilometer. ACM sees that all three municipal transport companies are in the process of making their operations more sustainable, as a result of which total CO2 emissoins in 2020 went down.

Quality

In terms of customer satisfaction, the differences are relatively small, and passengers, in general, rate the municipal transport companies favorably. With regard to complaints, incidents, cancellations, and punctuality, the three companies have varying scores, but not one of them really stands out.

Cost effectiveness and efficiency

RET is the most cost-effective and efficient municipal transport company. HTM has the highest costs per passenger-kilometer. Part of the reason is because HTM does not operate a metro system, which has relatively low costs per passenger-kilometer. There are also differences per modality. For example, RET has the highest costs per passenger-kilomter on the tram, and the lowest on the bus. GVB has mostly averages scoes, but the highest score on the metro.

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