What does it take to make progress toward networked public transport? Some findings from mid-sized cities in China.

The principles of networked public transport are that systems should be designed to facilitate transfer between routes, thus providing for minimal duplication of the system, and ensuring a net of public transport allows anywhere to anywhere access across the system. Theoretically networked public transport holds the best hope for developing a public transport system that can compete with the private car. Despite there being many policies that support networked transport systems, and demand the development of adequate alternatives to the private car, implementation of such systems has been limited. This paper reports on a review of 100 cities in China for implementation of networked public transport. The findings provide an opportunity to review how understandings of the principles of networked public transport are being interpreted and what implementation that is leading to. The paper demonstrates that the principles of networking can under some conditions be turned back to a logic of origin-destination public transport systems. The conclusion being that instrumental actions alone will not necessarily lead to a networked public transport system that can stand the test of time.