Featured Project
Assessment of French Urban Transport Opportunities
Location: France
Using our skills in urban transit financial and economic business case development, LeighFisher supported an international urban transport operator by researching the business opportunity that might arise if contracting in the French urban bus and tram sector were to be opened to competition and barriers to entry reduced (in the light of a recent legal ruling.
We assessed the likely scope in practice of opportunities being put to tender, described the present institutional structure and how it was likely to change, ascertained and assessed the likely practical difficulties and risks, analysed financial conditions, and assessed the situation of incumbent operators to facilitate an assessment of whether the opportunities were likely to be sufficiently profitable to attract private operators.
We also investigated the likely specification of the contracts to assess whether they gave private sector operators sufficient freedom to introduce innovations that would allow profitability to grow.
Since in practice, French authorities have had difficulty persuading non-incumbent operators to bid, we assessed what factors would tend to favor incumbent operators over potential new entrants.
We identified the apparently most promising opportunities, and facilitated discussions between our client and the authorities.
- Established a solid knowledge of the French urban transport market
- Successfully fast-tracked our client to a position of recognition in the market