Financial recovery plan post-Covid: How are transport networks adapting to realities?

In 2020, a sharp drop in patronage has led to a drastic reduction of revenue of around 70-90% with serious implication to the transport sector. Throughout 2020 and 2021 the public transport sector continued supporting cities and their citizens, creating  serious repercussions to companies business models and, in some cases, to public finances or companies financial health. A wide range of policies have deployed to try to cover public deficits, ensure the solvency of companies and stimulate ridership.

This webinar  will aim to provide some insights on the current approaches and policies implemented by networks to continue their service provision in 2021. This webinar will address the following questions:

• What type of strategies have been deployed to face the financial challenges of public transport operators?
• What changes in the cost structure have been observed and what type of policies have been deployed to encourage efficiency gains or cost optimization?
• Has there been opportunities to fortify revenue streams (including non-fare revenues, partnerships, etc)?

This webinar is part of a series of sessions on funding and financing organised by the Transport Economics Committee and the Organising Authorities Committee. This is the second edition and we hope to address and stimulate the debate on the issues pertaining to financial sustainability of our sector and reflect on how companies and cities are gearing up towards future funding and business modes of public transport.

Speakers:

• Bill Viqueira, Sr. Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, NJ TRANSIT Corporation, United States
• Roberto Labarthe, New Business Executive, Grupo CCR, Brazil
• Ismael Uruen-Pueyo, Economic and Financial Director, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), Spain

The webinar will be moderated by Florian Felizeter, Vice President, Acquisition & Structuring / Business Development, KfW IPEX-Bank, Germany.