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The governance of public transport is experiencing growing interest as a field of research. Collaboration, contracts, ownership are among the concepts applied in the literature. Outside the specific field of public transport, the term meta-governance and meta-governors - referring to actors and activities that aim to govern and guide a network - has gained increased attention. The point of departure for this article is to study if and to what extent the concept of meta-governance can contribute additional insight to the study of public transport governance, if signs of meta-governance in public transport can be observed in two cases included in the study, and finally, what the nature is of the networks within which it takes place. The cases are the Copenhagen Region, Denmark, and the West Midlands Region, England. In both cases there are signs of meta-governance. It is not clear whether it has increased in scale or level of activity over recent years, but it is likely to increase in the future. The core meta-governor identified in both cases is the passenger transport authority, although in the Danish case there are more actors of almost similar significance and governing capability. We conclude that the meta-governance concept adds to other concepts used in analyses of public transport governance by including more instruments of governance, bringing to the fore the need of a core, nodal actor, and by stressing furthermore the autonomy but also interdependence of other actors in the network. • Obvious signs of meta-governance are found in both cases. • The core meta-governor identified in both cases is the PTA. • The meta-governance concept adds to public transport governance research. • Other concepts applied PT governance research are still relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: After several years of New Public Management reforms within public transport, coordination seems to receive increased attention. With examples of actual as well as suggested changes taken from Denmark, Sweden and the UK the aim of the article is to analyse and classify the mechanisms utilized and suggested to increase coordination between core stakeholders within passenger railway services and bus services. Four distinctive mechanisms of coordination are suggested, namely organisational coordination, contractual coordination, partnership coordination and discursive coordination. Each coordination mechanism has its strengths and failures. The article also debates to what extent the mechanisms conflict with three core characteristics of New Public Management: Unbundling of the public sector into corporatized units; more contract-based competitive provision; and greater emphasis on output controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One striking effect from policy responses by governments to address the COVID-19 pandemic was the repression of mobility, resulting in altered volumes and patterns of passenger transport on a global scale. Building on governance and governmentality theories we provide a comparative analysis of the management of COVID-19 and climate change by the Swedish state in relation to individual mobility and transport. We find that the governance approach in the two cases differ significantly, with a unified state response to COVID-19 being based on a perception of acute crisis combined with solidarity appeals to citizens. In contrast, climate change is marked by a distributed network governance, a conceptualisation of future crisis, and individuals being invoked primarily as economic agents. We discuss whether a stronger leadership by the state combined with appeals to civic solidarity may open new policy avenues for sustainable mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]