After a long phase of continuous extensions to local public transport companies historically operating in the various territorial and offering segments, tenders for the assignment of services are starting to be carried out. It is a startup with characteristics that deserve to be highlighted.
In recent days, the four lots for the transport of buses in Campania have been assigned, which include the entire regional territory with the exception of the city of Naples. Busitalia, the Ferrovie dello Stato company in the urban and extra-urban bus sector, was awarded the first and fourth lots, respectively for the provincial territory of Naples and for the Salerno area, including the city and province. Busitalia Campania, a 100% Busitalia company, will therefore manage local public transport services in Salerno and the Province of Naples for the next 10 years. The award was formalized by ACAMIR (Agency of the Campania Region).
The tender involving urban and extra-urban services in Salerno envisages an annual production of 28.5 million kilometres. The lot dedicated to extra-urban services in the Province of Naples, however, has an annual production of 35 million kilometers which, overall, will be managed with a fleet of 1,390 buses.
The data that most catches the eye concerns the lot most dense in services, i.e. the territories of the metropolitan city excluding the municipality of Naples (lot 1). Only one offer was submitted, which therefore did not have to compete with any other operator, and was then inevitably assigned with the minimum discount. The other three lots also did not see the presence of a significant swarm of competing subjects. Only two offers were submitted for each lot. We are in the presence of a clear immaturity of the market in seizing the opportunities deriving from liberalization. The risks inherent in the organization of these services and the level of remuneration for public service obligations are evidently not considered attractive by potential new entrants.
Perhaps the most relevant signal does not concern so much those who enter the market but those who leave, because they have decided not to even present their offers to compete. EAV, the regional company that had historically always had a significant operational presence in bus services, exits this market and decides to focus only on rail services.
In short, after decades of extensions and direct assignments to the incumbents, Campania, with the carrying out of this tender on the bus services of the entire regional territory, with the exclusion of the capital city, highlights a series of interesting elements.
First of all, there is not yet a great interest in entering this market, and the entity that seems most ready to seize the opportunities is a company that is part of the Ferrovie Group, incumbent in another market. The services of the capital municipality are still excluded, for the moment still within the area of direct assignment, with a still intense discussion between political and trade union forces on the competitive destiny of this market.
