Ceris-Cnr, W.P. N°16/2000
(direct management), 2] through the formation of special companies whose complete
ownership is under the local body7, and 3] in regime of concession, by means of the direct
allotment of the transport lines to public-owned or private-owned firms8. In particular, the
indirect management through the resort to the special company institution has represented
without doubt the most recurring model and this allows us to justify the peculiar ownership
structure, namely more public-oriented, that characterizes the Italian LPT sector.
Table 1 - Local public transit: main traffic data for the road transport by separating
local state-owned from private-owned companies (years 1985-1995)
Type of traffic index

Years

Local
State-owned
companies

%

Local
private-owned
companies

%

Total

Vehicles
(number of buses)

1985
1990
1993
1994
1995

26,113
28,053
27,639
26,827
26,032

66
66
66
64
63

13,547
14,416
14,139
14,773
15,277

34
34
34
36
37

39,660
42,469
41,778
41,600
41,309

Number of
service workers

1985
1990
1993
1994
1995

94,070
87,405
80,722
76,482
71,621

80
78
78
77
76

23,341
23,997
22,228
22,640
22,575

20
22
22
23
24

117,411
111,402
102,950
99,122
94,196

Passengers
(in millions)

1993
1994
1995

3,090,611
3,122,765
2,995,127

87
87
85

460,061
462,448
513,768

13
13
15

3,550,672
3,585,213
3,508,895

Source: Ministry of Transport and Navigation (1997)

7

8

The legislative definition of the special company institution has changed out of all during the years with
respect to what the legislator referred to in 1981, moving towards a larger autonomy from the owner local
body as regards the managerial policy. At present this institute is regulated by the law n. 142/90, stating
under the first paragraph of the article 23: “the special company is a local body’s instrumental institution,
incorporated and endowed with entrepreneurial autonomy and its own statute which was approved by the
town council”.
With regard to the granting of transport lines concessions, the law n. 151/81 referred to special regional
ordinances, which had to establish: a] the term and the procedure of the allotment, b] the conditions for the
practice, as regards the safety and the regularity of the services, c] the circumstances of rescission and d]
the cases of interregional lines. The reform of the LPT sector, started in the second half of the nineties, has
been attempting to introduce important innovations with regard to the process of awarding concessions, in
particular by recommending the resort to competitive tendering (decree law n. 422/97), in order to
promote the competition and encourage the allocative efficiency in the sector. However, as we well see in
the paragraph 3, the regions and the local bodies have been revealing conspicuous delay in adopting such
measures. This has raised the intervention of the National Antitrust Authority (AGCM) and has compelled
to the emanation of new more stringent rules on the subject (decree law n. 400/99) to urge the regional and
local authorities to conform to the guidelines of the reform.

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