Ceris-Cnr, W.P. N°16/2000

Table 1 shows the distribution of local public-owned and private-owned companies for
the road transport way in terms of number of buses, service workers and passengers during
the years 1985-1995. The evolution of the traffic data during this period certainly highlights
a progressively greater relevance of the private sector; nevertheless, the weight of the local
public-owned companies goes on being decisive, specially in terms of number of
passengers (85% public versus 15% private during 1995). We will go back at the end of
this study to the issue of the importance of taking seriously the privatization policy in the
sector, if one wishes that the liberalization of the LPT services, a guideline of the reform
process in progress (see below), actually manifests oneself in the introduction of the widest
admissible degree of competition and in a resultant efficiency recovery on the side of
service supply.
2.3. The planning and the financing of the services: the framework before the reform
The Italian Constitution gives the Regional authorities the power to legislate about
some areas of regional interest (art. 117). Included among these are “regional tramways and
roadways”. For the same subjects indicated in the article n. 117, the Constitution also gives
the regions administrative powers (art. 118); however, there is always the possibility for the
subjects of exclusive local interest, that the Government is giving some administrative
functions to Provincial, Council and other local bodies.
The transfer of these responsibilities to the Regions has become realistic, even if with
delay, following some orders of decentralization of administrative functions of the
Government promulgated in 1972 and lately collected in an organic text with the D.P.R.
(Republic President’s Decree) n. 616/779. As far as the transport sector is concerned, article
84 transfers the functions concerning the tramways and roadways of regional interest to the
regions; it concerns public transport services for people and goods (with the exclusion of
post services) by using tramways, metropolitan lines and roadways. However, it is only
with the law defining the order, the structure and the re-enforcement of local public
transport (law n. 151/81) that we arrive at the definition of an organic and in some measure
definitive framework of this sector.

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The global order that the DPR 616 intend to realise has been defined as follows: ”for each subject the
Government carry on the role of legislation and general planning, the region of legislation and specific
planning, the minor territorial authorities (province and council) a role of administration organically
defined” (Bobo e Pastori 1994).

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