Tendering and Contracting in Public Transport

Mr. van de Velde’s research and advisory work concentrates on regulatory reforms in local public transport and the railway sector. He is expert on public transport institutional reforms and has a wide knowledge on practices and reforms undertaken in European public transport during the last decades. He participated in many European research studies on these topics and advised local authorities, ministries and the European Commission on issues pertaining to institutional reforms and the introduction of competition in public transport.

Emmanuel Dommergues studied political economy at the University of Warwick (UK) and at Dauphine University (Paris, France). He holds a degree in Space Planning and Policy following a Masters at Sciences Po (Paris, France).

Over the course of 18 years, he served as a civil servant in the urban mobility sector in the Paris region. He began his career as a transport planner, contributing to regional transport planning strategies for the Ile-de-France Regional Authority. Subsequently, he worked as a transport project manager, overseeing significant metro line extension projects in Paris, which involved tasks such as technical definition and environmental assessment, for the transport authority of Paris (Ile-de-France Mobilités) and the transport operator RATP.

Later, he served as a technical advisor to the Deputy-Mayor of the City of Paris, focusing on street design and transport matters while representing the city’s interests at the Authority Council. Four years ago, he joined UITP, where he has been involved in examining governance and policy issues pertinent to transport authorities. He has been responsible for developing UITP activities concerning informal transport and paratransit transformation policies. 

Ms Alison Swee is the Director for Bus Contract Management under the Public Transport Group in the Land Transport Authority (“LTA”) of Singapore. Since the commencement of the Bus Contracting Model (“BCM”) in 2016, she has helmed the tendering and contract management of Singapore’s 14 bus packages, comprising a total contract value of over S$1.3 bil/per year. Under her leadership, her team has also successfully transited five bus tendered packages since 2016. With over 22 years of experience in the transport industry, 14 of which are in the Public Transport Group, Alison, who is involved in the deliberation of policy, strategic goals and directions for the industry, has contributed vastly to the transformation of the public bus industry in Singapore.

Appointed as LTA’s Chief Liaison Officer since 2019, Alison also plays a key role in strengthening and facilitating the tripartite relationship between the National Transport Workers’ Union and the Public Transport Operators, with the aim of building a positive work environment for the public transport workers so that commuters can continue their daily journeys seamlessly. With her guidance and direction, her team works with the various agencies, including the Ministry of Manpower, to resolve complex and critical industrial relations issues in a timely and effective manner, to ensure smooth public transport operations.

Tom has been at Transport for London (TfL) for over 16 years in a variety of roles; transport planning, technology, change, stakeholder, commercial and finance. He spent several years in Strategy and my substantive job is Head of Strategy for TfL. He is currently General Manager of the Docklands Light Railway, a (contracted) railway serving the Docklands area of London.

After my studies in Technical Transport Engineering, I have been working in the public transport sector for over 35 years. Over the past decades, I have built up a broad knowledge in the field of public transport and an extensive knowledge of the competitive tendering.

Before I worked at the Vervoerregio Amsterdam, I worked as consultant for many years on this topic, helping authorities to organize competitively tendered contracts. Since 2009 I have been working at the Vervoerregio Amsterdam and I am intensively involved in our tender processes. That’s how I was involved in the tender for one of the Amsterdam cases which I will present.

In my work I try as much as possible to convert the ideas of the political directors into concrete and realistic plans, so that they can actually be realized on the road or rail. In this way I also try to get to the results of the tender processes.

Biography in English

At SYTRAL since 2003, I was initially recruited to manage the competitive tendering of the TCL network for the 2005-2010 contract. I created a department and a division in charge of managing public service contracts. This department steers and carries out the contractualisation of SYTRAL Mobilités‘ transport networks and services, supervises contractual monitoring and negotiates amendments, and manages the reporting of information to the local authority. Previously, I held various positions, both operational and functional, within several private groups (deputy director of a service activity, management controller, etc.), in which I had the opportunity to organise responses to calls for tender for the public and private sectors.

Biographie en français

Au SYTRAL depuis 2003, initialement recruté pour piloter la mise en concurrence du réseau TCL du contrat 2005-2010, j’ai ensuite créé un service puis une direction en charge du pilotage des contrats de DSP. Cette direction pilote et réalise la contractualisation des réseaux et services de transport de SYTRAL Mobilités, supervise le suivi contractuel et négocie les avenants, gère le reporting des informations auprès de la Collectivité. Auparavant, j’ai occupé différentes fonctions, tant opérationnelles que fonctionnelles, au sein de quelques groupes privés (directeur adjoint d’une activité de services, contrôleur de gestion…), dans lesquelles j’ai eu l’occasion d’organiser des réponses à des appels d’offres pour le secteur public et privé.