ALPHA. Demokratiskolan.se is a PROTOTYPE · Content review in progress
Demokratiskolan
The Public transport card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 49 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaPlaces & infrastructure
  • Centre of gravityThe region
  • Points of influence4 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe regional election
Places & infrastructure

Public transport

Transportation in & between cities

The bus, the train and the metro decide which jobs, schools and people you can reach. Few areas show as clearly how the municipality, the region and central government share the responsibility, and how much is settled in an election many people skip: the regional election.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · streets, stops & plans · approx 25 %
  • Region · routes, fares & procurement · approx 50 %
  • State · law, rail & national roads · approx 20 %
  • EU · procurement rules · approx 5 %

The centre of gravity is with the region. It is the regional election, not the general election, that decides most about your bus route.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe street & the stop
The regionThe responsible authority · centre of gravity
Central governmentThe framework
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige), the technical committee and the urban planning committee.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige), the public transport committee & the RKM (SL, Västtrafik, Skånetrafiken).
The Riksdag, the Government, the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) & the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen).
What do they decide?
Streets, stop areas, bus lanes, cycle paths and the detailed development plans (detaljplaner) that make room for traffic.
Which routes exist, how often they run, what the ticket costs and which companies operate them.
The Public Transport Act, the railways, national roads, rules and permits.
Where are decisions made?
In the municipal hall: committee meetings and the council. The documents are public.
In the regional council and the public transport committee, after consultation with the municipalities.
In the Riksdag and at the agencies, with the national plan as the tool.
Who pays?
The municipal tax: streets, stop areas and co-funding of projects.
The regional tax plus ticket revenue. About half of each trip is tax-funded.
The central government budget: railways, national roads and urban environment agreements.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election A citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag) about the stop, a response to the planning consultation.
Regional election The consultation on the regional transport plan, an email to the committee's politicians.
General election A referral response on the national plan.
EUThe EU's public transport regulation governs procurement and your rights as a passenger. Shaped in the European Parliament election, every five years.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case How a new bus route comes to be
  1. EU

    The EU sets the ground rules

    The public transport regulation and the procurement rules decide how services may be bought and what rights passengers have. The framework is fixed long before anyone has drawn a route on the map.

  2. State

    The Riksdag requires someone responsible in every county

    The Public Transport Act says that every county must have a regional public transport authority responsible for the services. The state also builds the railways and the national roads that the traffic runs on.

    Point of influence

    The general election shapes the law and the infrastructure budget. The national plan goes out for referral (remiss), and private individuals can respond too.

  3. Region

    The region identifies the needs

    The regional transport plan, the region's long-term plan, describes where services need to grow. This is where the idea for the new route is born, often after pressure from municipalities and passengers.

    Point of influence

    The plan goes out for open consultation (samråd) before it is decided. Anyone can respond, not just organisations.

  4. Region

    The committee decides: route, frequency, price

    The public transport committee, elected by the regional council, makes the actual decision and sets aside the money: regional tax plus ticket revenue. About half of every trip is tax-funded.

    Point of influence

    The regional election decides who sits on the committee. Between elections the members are reachable: names and email addresses are on the region's website.

  5. RegionEU

    The services go out to tender

    The regional public transport authority (in everyday life SL, Västtrafik or Skånetrafiken) procures a company to operate them, under EU rules. The contract shapes the quality for years to come.

  6. Municipality

    The municipality builds the stop

    The street, the stop, the lighting and the path to it are the municipality's land and the municipality's decision. A detailed development plan (detaljplan) may need to change, and the technical committee sets aside the money.

    Point of influence

    Many municipalities accept citizen's proposals, and detailed plans always go out for consultation. This is where individuals most often get heard.

  7. Your everyday life

    Route 314 is running

    Eighteen minutes to work instead of forty. Every step along the way was a decision someone made, and one that could be influenced.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. What would get more people in your municipality to leave the car at home?

  2. How should public transport be paid for: by passengers through the ticket price, or by everyone through taxes?

  3. City and countryside have completely different conditions. What would fair public transport across the whole region look like?

  4. Do you know what your regional election decided last time, and what it decides next time?

  5. What power do you have as a passenger between elections, and do you use it?

Glossary

RKM
Regional public transport authority: the body legally responsible for the county's public transport, usually the region.
Trafikförsörjningsprogram
The region's long-term plan for public transport. Decided after open consultation (samråd).
Nationell plan
The state's twelve-year plan for railways and national roads, decided by the Government.
Samråd
The formal stage when anyone can have their say before a decision is made.
Medborgarförslag
The right, in many municipalities, to put a proposal directly to the municipal council.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.