EU Subsidies in Public Transportation: The Copenhagen case

Abstract: The present study investigates the following problem: What are the regulatory structures of land based transportation in the greater Copenhagen area? In order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of this problem, three sub questions were designed to target the structures in detail. These are: How do European regulations on the area of the land based transportation influence the subsidy process within the Danish market? How does the quality measurement system meet the challenges of a changing market within subsidies? And where is the customer focus in the Danish market? Such research was developed under the scope of legal pluralism, through a literature review on the EU regulatory process, the Danish market and subsidies, and with passenger surveys and key individual interviews. This research has identified the regulatory structure on the area, how the EU regulations set the framework for national subsidy process, and how the quality measurement system is having a more significant role in that process. This research also identified the customers from all actors on the Danish market, where the passengers are a direct product of the customer interest.