The Regionalstadt or `regional city' model of the then Oberbürgermeister Möller, which envisaged abolishing the City of Frankfurt and forming a large-space municipality to include large sections of the umland, with a population of almost 1.4 million. Its political administrative structure should follow the models of Hamburg and Berlin: on the one hand central regional administration and parliament, and on the other decentralized district administrations and parliaments.
		The Stadtkreis or `county borough' model of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In analogy to Landkreise, Frankfurt and its sphere of influence was to be brought together in a large-space Kreis or county, comprising a total of 15 municipal units. Both levels were to be provided with their own political representative bodies and administrations (Magistrat).
		The Stadtverband or `municipal union' favoured by the Landräte (36) and the Hesse Gemeindetag, the Local Authorities Conference, which envisaged the voluntary union of cities and Gemeinden in the Frankfurt region, which should nevertheless retain their existing form.

    The only possible compromise solution proved to be a local authority association on the model of the mandatory multi-purpose joint authority (Mehrzweckpflichtverband). (37) The key component of this compromise was the guarantee of local autonomy for cities, Gemeinden, and Kreise accompanied by the closest possible cooperation in problem-solving. However, the broad range of opinions and the differing interests of the actors concerned turned decision-making on this question into a protracted and controversial process, where the matters in dispute were primarily the functional structure of and electoral procedure in the new organizational unit.

    Finally, the Land government and the Hesse state parliament opted for a mandatory multi-purpose joint authority, which was called into being at the beginning of 1975 by the `Act on the Frankfurt Regional Union' (38) adopted on 11 September 1974.
 

    The members of the Union are the county boroughs (kreisfreie Städte) of Frankfurt and Offenbach and 41 non-county municipalities and Gemeinden plus `6 Landkreise, of which three belong fully to the Union, while only parts of the others do so'. (39)

    The decisive reasons for this territorial extent, which also deviates markedly from the boundaries of the Frankfurt region, excluding important north-eastern sections, were `questions of political expediency rather than regional and Land planning criteria'. (40)

    The constitution of the Union is based on the modified Magistrat constitution (unechte Magistratsverfassung) (providing for a collegiate executive) under the Hesse local government (see section I.1) and Landkreis statutes. The institutions provided and the names given them clearly indicate that the legislator had no intention of setting up a traditional joint authority (Zweckverband), but took as a model the organization of local authorities as bodies corporate. Since 1977, the directly elected representative body is the Verbandstag or Union Assembly. It is composed of 105 deputies elected for four years. The number of deputies is proportionate to the distribution of population in the five constituencies. Almost half the deputies accordingly come from Frankfurt and Offenbach.

    The administrative authority of the Verband, equivalent to the Magistrat in larger Hesse cities is the Verbandsausschuß or Union Committee. It is elected by the Verbandstag and deals with day-to-day administrative business in conformity with the decisions of the Verbandstag and the Gemeindekammer (Chamber of Local Authorities). The setting up of the third institution, the Gemeindekammer, was necessary for constitutional reasons. Since the Umlandverband is responsible for land-use planning, a function guaranteed to local self-government by the Basic Law, and the Gemeinden were not represented as institutions in the Verbandstag, a body was created in which the municipalities and Gemeinden belonging to the Verband are directly represented - regardless of size - by one representative and one vote each. (41)

    According to section 1 of the `Act on the Frankfurt Regional Union', the primary purpose of the UVF is to `promote and secure the orderly development of the Union territory'. A number of functions have been transferred to the Union to achieve this purpose. Primary among these - in keeping with the reasons for setting up the Union - are supralocal planning functions such as establishing land-use plans, general transportation plans, and landscape plans. These so-called `substantial' powers also concern land reserves, water supplies, supralocal water disposal and the operation of waste disposal facilities, abattoirs, and leisure and recreation centres. Besides these substantial powers, the Union has also been assigned a series of cooperative, coordinative, and consultative functions: cooperation in mass transit planning, coordinating energy supply interests, and supralocal functions in environmental protection, locational consulting and publicity in the field of business promotion, and coordinating the interests of communal hospital authorities. (42)

    The UVF has no competence in the fields of urban/local development planning and regional planning. Regional planning was initially left in the hands of the Lower Main Standing Conference of Local Planning Authorities (Regionale Planungsgemeinschaft Untermain [RPU]), established for this purpose by the Hesse state government with responsibility for approximately the same area, one of six such bodies in Hesse. With the amendment of the Hesse State Planning Act in 1980, the pertinent powers were transferred to the second tier authority Regierungspräsident (see section I.3). Regardless of this transfer of competence, the regional planning goals relevant for the Frankfurt area have been strongly influenced by the UVF.

    The UVF is financed not only by charges (from 1990) and contributions but especially by means of the Union levy (Verbandsumlage) raised from municipalities and Gemeinden belonging to the Union - but not from Kreise. It is set in proportion to both the population and the economic strength of the given Gemeinde. The City of Frankfurt must accordingly contribute almost half of the Union budget - although this does not correspond to its population. (43)

    Since the establishment of the Union in 1975, the Union levy has grown steadily. It was initially DM 0.50 per inhabitant, but by 1988 it had already risen to DM 13.85.
 

    In mid-1973, after comprehensive preparations and on the basis of a contract under public-law concluded between the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Hesse and the City of Frankfurt, the City of Frankfurt am Main - Municipal Utilities - and German Rail founded the Frankfurt Transport and Tariff Association (FVV) as a limited liability company. In May 1987, the Frankfurter-Königssteiner Eisenbahn AG became third shareholder in the company. The decision-making bodies of the FVV were the Council (with the City of Frankfurt, the State of Hesse, and the Federation as representatives), the general shareholders' meeting, standing committee, and a board of management, as well as an advisory board composed of leading public figures. (45)

    The FVV started operations in May 1974, over a territory of 2200 kmē. coinciding more or less with the so-called Rhine-Main area (see section II.2). The system's transport network had developed in the course of history. In the following years it was therefore necessary to take comprehensive expansion and complementation measures to meet demand and operational requirements, especially in the underground and suburban railway systems (U-Bahn, S-Bahn), with the aim of establishing an integrated rapid transit system. In a 1992 study of the choice of modes of transport in the FVV area, a clear gap became evident: FVV services were used most often within the central city (public transport [more than 40 per cent] and passenger cars [50 per cent] were almost on a level), but were the least used mode of transport for journeys within the region (just under 12 per cent).
 

    In Hesse this had already been done by the end of 1993 with the adoption of the Act on the Further Development of Public Transport in Hesse. (48) The authorities given responsibility for the planning, organization, and implementation of mass transit are `the Landkreise, the county boroughs, and the Gemeinden with a population of 50,000 or more'. (49) For the purpose of performing the above-mentioned functions, these local authorities may set up integrated transport systems covering certain regions within Hesse. One such region is the Rhine-Main area.

    In mid-1994, following comprehensive preparations and a differentiated feasibility study, the Rhine-Main Transport Association (Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund [RMV]) was founded, based largely on a concept of the UVF. In late May 1995 the RMV started operations - so to speak as a `large-scale experiment in railway transport regionalization', (50) thus taking up the succession to the 20-year-old FVV.
 

    Like the FVV, the RMV was given the legal status of a limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung -GmbH). But in contrast to the FVV, the RMV is an association of local authorities. The shareholders are not only the State of Hesse and the City of Frankfurt but also 10 county boroughs and 15 Landkreise. Because EC law requires the strict separation of `clients' (local authorities) and service providers (local transport undertakings), the latter are precluded from membership in the RMV.

    The supreme decision-making body in the RMV is the shareholders' meeting; day-to-day business is entrusted to the management. A supervisory board has been established to make necessary short-term decisions and to ensure regular monitoring of management activities. Moreover, the creation of advisory boards is provided for `in the interests of the greatest possible cooperation with transportation experts, socially relevant groups, customers, and transport undertakings,' (51)and to advise the supervisory board and management.

    Unlike the FVV, the RMV has a decentralized structure. Regionally important functions are at the management/administration level; the shareholders `continue to be responsible' `for their local services'. (52) A further structural principle is the separation of policy, management, and operations. Fundamental decisions are to be made and policy parameters set at the political level (Land and local authorities). The RMV, as the management level, is responsible for network and service planning, marketing and public relations, procurement of transport services, supervision of performance, as well as accounting and financing. The provision of local public transport services are the responsibility of (communal) transport undertakings (at present 115) on the basis of contracts with the RMV.

    The principal objective of the RMV is the `intensified development of mass transit in the agglomerations and the region in order to provide the people living there with qualitatively and quantitatively adequate transportation services'. (53) The target is to raise the share of bus and rail services in total transportation in the system area from the present 16 per cent to 25 per cent. It is hoped to recoup at least 50 per cent of costs from income.

    Whereas the fare system of the FVV was monocentrically oriented on the City of Frankfurt, the RMV with its different and greater territory operates with an area tariff system. The RMV motto is `One Timetable, One Tariff One Ticket'.

    The planned range of services are to be financed by `fare and compensation revenue, transfer payments from the Federation and grants from the Länder and from local authorities'. () The Federal government continues to furnish the basic funding and facilities hitherto provided by German Rail; improvements in services with regard to transportation modes and traffic routes, on the other hand, have to be paid for proportionately by the local authorities and Kreise concerned. As an incentive for local `clients' to improve their mass transit services, the State of Hesse subsidizes Gemeinde and Kreis outlays in this field to the amount of 45 per cent.