Comparison of urban public transport systems in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Factors underpinning efficiency

Increasing traffic congestion and growing interest in environmental issues make public transport the preferred mode in cities. National and local authorities should set operating conditions that enable efficient use of public financial resources. This paper aims at identifying conditions important for efficient urban public transport. We compared urban public transport systems in two countries with similar starting situations due to their unified transport policy until 1993. First, we conducted a two-stage efficiency analysis based on separate calculations of production frontiers using data envelopment analysis and subsequent tobit regression to identify the impact of contextual variables. For more robust results, we also used stochastic frontier analysis and a bias-corrected bootstrap method to calculate efficiency and its factors in a single step. Higher fares, subsidies, and network density tended towards lower efficiency. In contrast, higher average investment, the existence of a tram system, and the proportion of drivers within total employment increased efficiency. We expected a positive impact from existing integration systems but did not find a significant impact on efficiency. The results are quite robust for all methods applied. Non-parametric tests further revealed that the countries differed in all characteristics except for network density and the proportion of subsidies within costs.