Abstract

The article investigates the liberalization process in the local public transport sector, with respect to the Rome metropolitan area. The author highlights the main obstacles that hamper the achievement of financial break-even in the supply of local transport services. In this context, the paper analyzes the tendency towards in-house supply of transport services, which threatens competition in the sector and testifies, once and again, that policymakers have preserved their traditional hostility towards a market economy lead by competitive forces: in-house governance remains a powerful instrument to maintain the power over local activities, which in turn grants a degree of economic and political control over the territory. The author also points out that such tendency is not a peculiar feature of the Rome area, but a significant example of a way more widespread behaviour currently adopted by local politicians in Italy.