Public transport (PT) and its timetables have considerable effects on the everyday life of passengers and transport workers. However, social science research on the processes, values, and goals behind the creation of PT timetables is limited. The process of timetabling has mainly been studied within transport engineering from a technical and optimization perspective. This exploratory study aims to gain an understanding of the timetabling process from a sociological perspective to identify themes for further inquiry. In addition, it aims to reflect on the possible socio-spatial effects of timetable practices, based on the goals and values expressed by professionals at PT authorities. The study focuses on timetable planning for buses in three Swedish regional PT authorities (RPTAs). The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with seven officials at three RPTAs, supported by a semi-systematic literature overview.

The results indicate that bus timetables are created through a complex decision-making process that starts with political goals. This process involves extensive coordination among regional RPTAs, municipalities, and PT operators, with limited input from employers and citizens. The knowledge base includes travel data and municipal plans, with constraints such as budget, infrastructure, and road network issues. The study suggests that the main goal of timetable planning is to increase PT usage by focusing on high-volume routes, following a “best benefit for most people” principle.

Three key sociological and temporal issues arise: the utilitarian approach of benefiting the majority, the prioritization of speed, and the possibility to adapt to timetables. The focus on trunk routes can lead to high-quality PT for many but insufficient service for others. Speed prioritization can exclude those who cannot adapt to it, such as people with disabilities. The question of who should adapt to whose schedules remains critical, as the possibility to control one own’s time is unequally distributed. 

Kollektivtrafiken och dess tidtabeller påverkar resenärer och transportarbetare i deras vardag. Trots det är den samhällsvetenskapliga forskningen om processerna, värderingarna och målen bakom tidtabellsplanering begränsad. Tidtabellsprocessen har främst studerats ur ett tekniskt perspektiv med fokus på optimering. Denna explorativa studie syftar till att skapa en första förståelse för tidtabellsprocessen ur ett sociologiskt perspektiv för att identifiera relevanta teman för fortsatt forskning. Ett annat syfte är att reflektera över möjliga socio-spatiala effekter av tidtabellsplaneringen, baserat på de mål och värderingar som uttrycks av planerare. Studien fokuserar på tidtabellsplanering för bussar i treregionala kollektivtrafikmyndigheter (RKM). Analysen bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju tjänstemän vid tre RKM, samt en semi-systematisk litteraturöversikt.

Resultaten visar att busstidtabeller skapas genom en komplex beslutsprocess som börjar med politiska mål och strategiska dokument. Denna process involverar omfattande samordning mellan regionala RKM, kommuner och operatörer, med begränsad involvering av arbetsgivare och medborgare. Kunskapsbasen inkluderar resedata och kommunala planer. Frågor som berör budget, infrastruktur och framkomlighet skapar begränsningar. Studien pekar på att ett övergripande mål med tidtabellsplanering är att öka antalet resenärer genom att fokusera på linjer med höga volymer av resande, enligt principen ”bäst nytta för flest”.

Studien pekar på tre centrala sociologiska frågor: den utilitaristiska ansatsen att gynna majoriteten, prioriteringen av hastighet och frågan om vem som kan anpassa sig till vilka tidtabeller. Fokuset på ”starka stråk” bidrar till kollektivtrafik med hög kvalitet för många men också otillräcklig service för andra. Att prioritera hastighet gör det svårt för exempelvis personer med funktionsnedsättningar att anpassa sig till tidtabellen. Frågan om vem som ska anpassa sig till vems tidtabeller förblir kritisk, eftersom möjligheten att styra över den egna tiden är ojämnt fördelad.  

While transport and mobility studies have focused on diverse challenges related to improving the quality of public transport (PT) for its passengers, they have hardly examined the well-being and livelihoods of PT workers. To address this gap, we explore the work spaces and times of bus drivers employed in PT in Gothenburg and Stockholm (Sweden), where PT operations are procured from private companies to ensure service quality and financial efficiency. Drawing upon studies on capitalist temporalities of work, we observe that the bus drivers are obliged to perform fatiguing work tasks under constant time pressure, which generates daily conflicts between bodily, personal, and work rhythms.

The drivers’ time wealth is severely constrained, as they have limited capacity to control their own time and experience a near-constant work-life imbalance. Our findings indicate that such hindrances are not simply a product of work rhythms marked by the rigidity of the PT timetable. Rather, they emerge from the operational and financial logic of procurement that contradicts the well-being and livelihoods of PT workers. We conclude with a plea to place workers as essential actors for future reflections on inequalities and injustices related to transport and mobility.

This paper contributes to the understanding of spatiotemporal accessibility inequalities by exploring how the current public transport (PT) provision affects the time wealth of PT users living in two peripheral neighbourhoods in Malmo. The paper investigates time-related resources and constraints that concur in defining accessibility inequalities, identifies forms of temporal disadvantage and privilege and addresses the relevance of recognizing and meeting the multiple time-related needs of (potential) PT users. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates results from a thematic analysis of interviews and from a GIS spatiotemporal accessibility analysis of PT schedules to understand whether and how the current PT provision (a) allows users to carry out the desired or needed activities by PT in the time available to them, (b) is harmonized with their spatiotemporal access needs and (c) supports or hinders the users' ability to control their travel time. The paper suggests that, in the observed cases, the PT provision provides unequal opportunities for faster connections and information, exposing some users to time-related transport disadvantage. Also, the current PT provision does not always seem to be harmonized with the participants' access needs, especially during off-peak hours. The findings highlight the importance of taking into consideration the time wealth of (potential) PT users with different access needs, resources, and constraints, with the aim to both tackle transport disadvantage and support the adoption of sustainable modal choices. The study provides directions for further spatiotemporal accessibility research and for urban time and mobility policies.

Ongoing debates about public transport (PT) in Sweden appear to highlight a growingcontradiction. On the one hand, an increasing number of news reports depicts a continuousdeterioration of working conditions for bus drivers in PT. According to the local trade unions, PTworkers report long working days, interrupted by several hours of unpaid breaks. As a result,they suffer from extreme tiredness and experience difficulties attempting to balance work andprivate life. On the other hand, the current conditions comply with the Collective Agreement andthe employers, private companies operating PT based on a procurement agreement, argue that110 | P a g ecurrent work schedules are necessary to ensure service efficiency and provide full-timeemployment. The standards of PT services are indeed very high, and across the country PT isapproached as a central component of sustainable urban development agendas. We addressthis contradiction as a social conflict between the efficiency and sustainability of PT in Swedenand the worsening working conditions reported by trade unions. By means of a thematicanalysis of semi-structured interviews, we explore how bus drivers in procured PT—approachedas producers of PT but also actors that contest PT agendas and practices—experience the spacesand times of their work, with a focus on the different dimensions of their temporal well-being.

The paper investigates whether and how regional public transport plans in Sweden address issues of social justice. Drawing upon a theoretical and analytical framework based on Young’s concept of domination and using a critical discourse analysis conducted on regional transport plans in three Swedish regions (Skåne, Stockholm and Västra Götaland), we identify discourses potentially resulting from and reproducing domination dynamics. The analysis highlights the centrality of economic growth goals and the framing of public transport users as customers not involved in the decision-making processes, which contradicts the declared justice and sustainability aims of the plans. 

Fem noga utvalda förstudier har initierats av VTI som en del i den strategiska satsningen ”Ride the future” kopplad till framtidens mobilitetslösningar. Förstudiernas titel är följande: 

▪ Databearbetning och visualisering av mobila luftkvalitetsmätningar. 

▪ SUMO och Unreal Engine för co-simulering. 

▪ Exploring spatio-temporal accessibility in Lambohov: a pre-study. 

▪ Vägytans betydelse för vibrationer och komfort i långsamma fordon. 

▪ Infrastrukturbehov vid busshållplatser. 

Föreliggande pm innehåller en kort beskrivning av studierna och den mer utförliga redovisningen återfinns i bilagan.

Five carefully selected feasibility studies have been initiated by VTI as part of the strategic investment “Ride the future” linked to future mobility solutions. The title of the feasibility studies is as follows: 

▪ Data processing and visualization of mobile air quality measurements. 

▪ SUMO and Unreal Engine for co-simulation. 

▪ Exploring spatio-temporal accessibility in Lambohov: a pre-study. 

▪ The importance of the road surface for vibrations and comfort in slow vehicles. 

▪ Infrastructure needs at bus stops.

 This report contains a brief description of the studies and the more detailed report can be found in the appendix.

Since the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, interventions such as travel restrictions, remote work and education, and recommendations for society to limit social contacts have all affected the demand for public transport (PT). In this context, PT authorities and operators face the unprecedented challenge of maintaining adequate levels of service, affordability and accessibility for most people, at the same time safeguarding the health of users and workers whilst dealing with severe financial instability. A crucial goal for PT is to provide accessibility to relevant destinations, in turn reducing the risk of transport-related social exclusion. PT may be the only option for those who are unable or unwilling to walk, cycle or drive a car and who still have to carry out necessary out-of-home activities (often referred to as “captive users”). This group’s dependence on PT is likely to have been magnified during the COVID-19 pandemic, with this group also most likely to have been affected by the changes in PT provision. On the one hand, demand for PT has dramatically declined, but this decline in demand is not evenly distributed across social groups. Research has so far shown that working from home during the COVID-19pandemic is mostly a privilege of people with higher incomes, who have also stopped using PT in large numbers. On the other hand, measures aimed at reducing PT provision have been implemented in different parts of the world, representing a threat to PT’s accessibility and social equity goals. This implies that lower income users face a threefold challenge: (1) they still need to leave their home to reach relevant destinations (e.g. workplace); (2) they are more likely to to be dependent on PT as the only suitable transport option; and (3) they are more likely to be disproportionately affected by the reduction in the PT supply. During 2020, the PT authority of the region in which the city of Malmö is located reduced the supply of PTs a consequence of decreased revenues. This reduction resulted in a warning from the national government, and in a risk of losing part of the state subsidies. This study investigates (1) how the PT provision in Malmö, Sweden changed as a consequence of the pandemic; (2) the areas in the city which were most affected by these changes and their socio-economic and demographic characteristics; and (3) how these changes are perceived by and relate to everyday mobility practices among different (im)mobile subjects. These aims are fulfilled by combining quantitative and qualitative analyses.  

“Mobility as a Service” (MaaS) is a mobility distribution model that, through a single interface for planning, reserving and paying for trips, allows the user to combine different transport modes in a tailored mobility package. It seems to have emerged as a response to the personalized mobility needs of more and more de-synchronized urban populations, while, at the same time, promoting a sustainable transport system. The chapter examines the core characteristics of MaaS and reflects upon the emerging criticalities of the model.