REGULATION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN ISRAEL
At the end of the 20th century massive wave of transport reforms produced a large variety of transport organization forms. Evolution of the regulator has played a key role in these changes. This paper studies the structure of transport regulation in Israel. I describe the structure of the regulator, division of authority between national and regional levels, operators’ involvement in transport planning (STO model), and competition. Then I discuss potential problems highlighted in the literature on Israeli transport regulation. The paper shows that the structure of the regulator combines government authorities with private company providing the expertise to the government in the field of reforms. This is a result of liberal reforms in Israel at the end of the 20th which included among its goals solving the issue of regulatory capture in Israeli transport sector. However, the division of authority has not been changed. Regional authorities still play a minor role in transportation policy compared to national regulator which might hinder the ability of the government to adapt and quickly respond to changes in the transportation market. Lastly, STO model has shown that almost all decisions in transport planning are made by government and not by transport companies. This distinguishes Israel from European practic delegating the ability to make decisions on tactical (and sometimes even strategic) level to transit operators.