Infrastructure, land use, and the uneven performance of public transport services

Ensuring high-quality public transport is a key challenge for cities aiming to reduce car dependency and promote more sustainable and equitable urban mobility. This study examines how infrastructure and urban configuration shape the operational performance of public transport services, using Santiago, Chile, as a case study. We analyze three quality indicators—average speed, frequency compliance, and regularity compliance—and show that measured performance is not only a function of operator efficiency but also of structural factors beyond their control. Our findings demonstrate that external factors play an important role in quality indicators, with implications for contract design: when contracts involve relative performance comparisons between operators, contextual factors should be incorporated to avoid unfair penalization, while in systems like Santiago that use absolute standards, these factors could inform bidding decisions and performance evaluation frameworks. More broadly, our results suggest urban transport policy should consider contextual factors appropriately in contract design and performance evaluation.