The main pillars of this reform is to safeguard the
public character of urban transport, increase the
Mass Transportation Means’ share in the trans-
port mix and enhance combined transport.
The operational pillar comprises the improvement
of the quality of metropolitan transport, the simpli-
fication and streamlining of the operators’ struc-
ture, the improvement of operating income, the
rationalization of subsidies, commercial exploita-
tion, as well as the rationalization of operating
and personnel costs.
The main means for reducing operating costs is
the merger of urban transport operators with the
aim of exploiting economies of scale, as well as
increasing revenues.
The merger will create two new organizations:
1.
a fixed rail mode operator, comprising:
•
Attica Metro Operation Company (AMEL)
•
ISAP (Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways)
•
TRAM
2.
a road transport operator, comprising:
•
Thermal Busses Company (ETHEL)
•
Athens Trolley Company (ILPAP)
Following the merger, the Athens Urban Transport
Organization (OASA) will become a Metropolitan
Operator, servicing the region of Attica as the sole
shareholder of the two new organizations, safe-
guarding the public character of transport and uti-
lizing synergies and economies of scale. The
changes are implemented through methodical
steps and interventions. The parliament has
already passed the law on “Restructuring Urban
Transport”, which, among others, settles issues
such as:
•
the organization’s financial consolidation;
•
cost rationalization;
•
subsidy rationalization;
•
covering the Group’s accumulated deficit.
The next steps include the organizational and
operational restructure of the OASA group through
corporate restructurings, new collective agree-
ments, the reduction of operating costs, personnel
management through transfers, company perform-
ance assessments, operational upgrades, road
network optimization, pricing policy differentiation,
investment in new technologies, use of telematics,
operational adoption of the European transporta-
tion quality model, enhancement of revenues, and
development of real property.
Focus on the income/expense
ratio
In regard to financial consolidation, the aim is to
drastically reduce the operating deficit through an
increase in revenues and a corresponding
decrease in costs, achieved by means of targeted
measures. Some examples of these measures
are:
•
The new pricing policy;
•
the fight against free-riding;
•
the delineation of intercompany relations
between OASA and the new organizations;
•
the definition of criteria and conditions for the
provision of annual state subsidies;
•
the establishment of an Accountability Pact for
following up business objectives;
•
Programme deals, specifying the operators’
relations with the central government.
By adopting these measures we expect to:
•
gradually reduce the deficit by almost 87% by
2013;
•
this reduction is translated to €320 million from
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