Rescaling public transport planning in Sweden: investigating the continued planning at the scale ‘left behind’

ABSTRACT This paper aims to contribute to a qualitative understanding of rescaling and its impact on planning strategies and governance relations across scales. By investigating the effects of rescaling for the old scale ‘left behind’ – through the case of public transport planning in Sweden – this paper illustrates how rescaled tasks continue to engage the scale ‘left behind’ (and is a source of ‘tensions’), long after a rescaling process has taken place. Through the lens of rescaling, three main points of discussion are highlighted in the paper: Firstly, processes of rescaling are intertwined with policy layering, and can as such be a source of both ‘good and evil’ for the continued planning on the scale ‘left behind’. Secondly, this calls for an increased geographical sensitivity in research when investigating the effects of rescaling, as the formal and practical outcomes of rescaling can be spatially unequal for planning bodies with similar formal mandates on the same scale. Thirdly, the development of governance relations and ‘tensions’ between new and old scales, are by no means static in time nor space, and calls for increased dialogue across planning scales to aid in the transition of responsibilities from the old to the new scale.


Introduction
In recent years, a growing scholarship has discussed the rescaling of policy and planning across Europe (Gualini 2006;Havlík 2018;Keating 2020;Stead 2014).In this debate, rescaling refers to 'redividing tasks, and responsibilities between the various tiers of government' (Roodbol-Mekkes and van den Brink 2015, 184) as well as the creation of 'new scales for intervention' (Stead 2014, 81).Rescaling can involve concentration of planning tasks to higher levels of the planning systems, for example to the national scale or to EU, as well as the decentralization of planning tasks to lower levels such as regional bodies and local authorities.
However, earlier studies have shown that rescaling through regulatory reforms is far from a 'clean cut' and a full transfer of a closed package of planning tasks from one scale to the other.This often causes tensions between the old and new scales of power regarding how policy and planning should be managed in the new administrative geographies that emerge from rescaling (cf.Gualini 2006;Havlík 2018;Hrelja et al. 2017).According to Havlík (2018Havlík ( , 2000)), there is sometimes a reluctance among actors on the former scale to 'cede powers' to the actors at the new scale, which is one source of such tensions.Similarly, Gualini (2006, 894) points to a path dependency of planning institutions, which can cause 'scalar mismatch' in rescaling between who is anticipated to carry out a certain task, and who has the formal responsibility to so do.Tensions between planning scales in relation to rescaling can also emerge when the new scale of power is given a formal mandate for planning, but not all the necessary tools of power, and is relying on collaboration with actors on the old scale to implement their plans (cf.Keating 2020).
Taken together, this motivates a relational understanding of rescaling, which assumes that planning on both 'new' and 'old' scales develops interdependently and in tandem.Thus, to complement the research debate focusing on the new scale receiving a planning task (cf.Havlík 2018;Keating 2020), this paper focuses on the planning at the old scale, i.e. the administrative scale that previously had the formal responsibility for the task being rescaled.The empirical case for this discussion on rescaling is the planning for public transport in Sweden, where a recent reform meant the rescaling of this task from the local to the regional scale (SFS 2010(SFS :1065)).
This reform was made to align to EU regulations for public transport on rail and road (EC 1370(EC /2007)).According to the Swedish parliament: The purpose of the new law was to modernize the public transport legislation and adapt it to the EU regulations in the field.In this way, public transport companies and the regional public transport authorities would be given better conditions to put travelers' needs at the center when public transport services were designed.(Sveriges Riksdag 2016, 9) The implementation of this law involved the inauguration of 21 regional public transport authorities (RTA) (cf.Johansson et al. 2017).Public transport corresponds to approximately 20% of all passenger transports in Sweden (Miljöbarometern 2022) and most of these trips (approximately 70%) take place in the metropolitan regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö (Trafikanalys 2019).Despite this uneven geographical distribution of public transport volumes, each of the RTA (territorially corresponding with Sweden's 21 counties, each covering a varying number of municipalities) was assigned equal strategic and operational responsibility for public transport within their territory by the national government.
According to Johansson et al. (2017), the RTA have operationalized their formal responsibilities into two strategic objectives.First, to increase market share of public transport in relation to private cars.Second, to provide public transport as a social service, especially focused on elderly people and young children.Similar changes, as seen in Sweden, resulting in both new scalar and institutional organization of public transport planning have been seen throughout Europe during the last 20 + years (Pettersson and Hrelja 2020; van de Velde and Wallis 2013).
Drawing on these observations, the aim of this paper is to contribute to a qualitative understanding of rescaling and how this impacts planning strategies and governance relations between different scales.We will discuss how the scale 'left behind' through the reform for public transport in the Swedish case, i.e. the municipalities, continue to plan for public transport, despite being formally deprived this mandate over 10 years ago.Through this discussion, we can illustrate how the effects of rescaling are spatially unevenly distributed between different municipalities, and that the reform of rescaling has qualitative effects on how some targets for public transport planning are prioritized, while others are downplayed.
In this context, it is important to note that the scale 'left behind' referred to here (i.e.local governments/municipalities), is not necessarily the same 'left behind places' that Rodri ́guez-Pose (2018) among others, describe as economically lagging and suffering inequalities caused by economic and political globalization.Although some of the municipalities included in this study are in fact 'shrinking' in economic and demographic terms (cf.Syssner 2020), many of them are quite viable and even booming.
The discussion is guided by three research questions: (1) What values guide the municipal planning for public transport in Sweden?
(2) In what ways have Swedish municipalities continued to plan for public transport after the rescaling of public transport in Sweden?(3) What are the municipal perceptions of 'tensions' between the old and the new scale after the rescaling of public transport planning in Sweden?
The paper is organized into five sections: This introduction (section one) is followed by section two which provides a literature background on rescaling and the debate on planning challenges for public transport.Section three provides methods and gives an overview of the empirical context.Section four contains the results from the analysis and section five presents the conclusions.

Literature background
In its most simplistic form, the concept of rescaling can be understood as: The process in which policies and politics that formerly took place at one scale are shifted to others in ways that reshape the practices themselves, redefine the scales to and from they are shifted, and reorganise interactions between scales.(McCann 2003, 162) As such, the rescaling concept has been used to analyse the redistribution of powers and responsibilities between the various levels of government, and the rise and fall of the various scales in spatial planning (Brenner 2003;Gualini 2006;Keating 2013;2020;Roodbol-Mekkes and van den Brink 2015).Such an interpretation of the concept focuses less on geography and more on institutions, where scales can be understood as governmental levels (i.e.national, and various subnational levels) rather than spatial territories.The relationship between these governmental levels is often understood using the metaphor of a hierarchical ladder (Crawford 2020), which has similar meaning to layer in the concept of multi-layer political systems.However, in this paper, we centre the understanding of scale and scaling to represent geographical scope and territorial reach, in addition to governmental levels.From such perspectives, it is relevant to describe rescaling from local to regional planning bodies to represent a process of 'scaling out' (in contrast with scaling up or down).
Scalar movements of political and administrative tasks should, however, not be misapprehended to describe 'pure' movements between scales, as it also involves the reorganization of scalar relations for shared responsibilities (Brenner 2003;Pike et al. 2016).Gualini (2006) argues that the capacity of planning bodies receiving a new planning task can be constrained by a high degree of institutional resilience at the former scale.This risks 'scalar mismatch' when a new scale does not correspond with the socially anticipated scale of handling a particular issue or task.This in turn, creates a need for new types of policy instruments (e.g.contractual agreements, public/private partnerships, competition-based incentives, etc.) designed to aid the new governance scale's capacity to act efficiently and with perceived legitimacy (Gualini 2006, 894).
Across the states in Europe, rescaling has increasingly been tied to the influence of the EU (e.g.Brenner 2003;Keating 2013;2020;Stead 2014).In this context, rescaling often follows 'functionalist arguments' (Keating 2020, 7) developed around the notion that there is an optimal territorial space for each planning function, which coincidentally often overlaps with the subnational regional governmental scale in the EU.Such rescaling of political and administrative tasks is commonly carried out with the dual aim of also improving regional competitiveness.This connects rescaling to a discussion on 'new regionalism' and its development can be attributed to three parallel driving forces: the ongoing internationalization and globalization of the economy and policymaking, the increasing awareness among policy makers of regional and local identities, and the growing debate about how to organize strategic planning in the most effective way (Keating 2017).As such, rescaling adhering to functionalist and 'regionalistic' arguments are always based on political decision-making and cannot be considered to represent 'natural' or self-evident regional territories (Keating 2020; see also Gualini 2006;Havlík 2018).
The case of rescaling discussed in this paper involves expanding the roles of the regional planning scale.Within the EU, regional bodies are increasingly consolidated and receive expanded responsibilities for welfare services, sustainable regional development, and economic growth (Keating 2017;Stead 2014).Through quite recent reforms, the planning tasks for the regional bodies in the Swedish planning system have expanded for regional development and public transport (Blom, Johansson, and Persson 2022).The main legacy for regional authorities is formed through their extensive responsibility for health-care services and which remains the very dominant planning task.
However, in Sweden, there is a strong tradition of powerful municipalities at the local scale in contrast with less powerful regional planning bodies.Here, municipalities have a planning monopoly related to land-use planning and an extensive responsibility for the provision of welfare services, including school transportation and mobility services for the elderly and people with disabilities (Blom, Johansson, and Persson 2022;Persson 2020;SFS 2010:165).Therefore, it is also important to stress that the framework regulation for local and regional authorities means that these are placed on the same political level, and that they are interconnected through many interdependencies (Blom, Johansson, and Persson 2022).Thus, in the Swedish context, subnational planning can be understood 'as a space of governance' (Keating 2020, 11).Local and regional planning bodies, in carrying out their increasingly more complicated tasks, rely on cooperation and collaboration with each other (Blom, Johansson, and Persson 2022;Persson 2020).

Prerequisites for the rescaling of public transport
In planning for public transport, there are inherited tensions between local and regional traffic (cf.Hrelja et al. 2017) that need to be considered in the context of rescaling.According to Hansson (2022), planning for public transport on the regional scale involves longer travel distances, lower passenger volumes, and on average, higher travel speeds.At the same time, planning for public transport on the local scale is characterized by shorter distances travelled, higher passenger volumes, and lower average travel speeds.For regional traffic, public transport only competes with private cars for passenger transport, while walking and cycling in addition to cars can be alternatives for local travel.Neither walking nor biking are really viable transport options on the regional scale but are often integrated in the planning for local public transport.There are also considerations to be made in terms of mode of transport (buses, trains etc.), stop spacing, route directness, traffic, etc., when planning for public transport, which is usually adapted to fit with either the local or regional scale (Hansson 2022).
As such, these separate planning logics for regional and local public transport are not always compatible and therefore becoming a source for tensions between the regional and the local planning perspectives.In a recent literature overview by Hrelja, Khan, and Pettersson (2020), two central collaborative problems in public transport planning between the local and regional scale are identified: One concerns the difficulties of creating efficient public transport systems and everything that involves in terms of the cooperation of schedules, the creation of coherent ticket systems, etc., in order to provide good service, coherence, and simplicity to passengers.The second deals with the difficulties of establishing integrated public transport and landuse planning.(Hrelja, Khan, and Pettersson 2020, 190) Considering the second problem pointing at the dependency on land-use planning, although there are important variations between national settings, it is usually the case that while 'land-use (spatial) planning is rarely the competence of regional government […] public transport planning is more likely to lie within their control' (Hrelja et al. 2017, 611; see also Hirschhorn et al. 2020).Thus, the rescaling means to separate these integrated tasksi.e.transport systems and land-use planningbetween two planning scales and hence demand for collaboration.These interdependencies and complexities between traffic planning and land-use planning are of particular importance for urban settings and densely populated areas, compared with rural and more sparsely populated environments (Veeneman and Mulley 2018).If managed successfully, the effects of these collaborative problems are mitigated and achievements are made towards 'congruence between spatial and transport planning, helping to moderate sprawling and car usage' as well as creating 'a shared understanding about the importance of coordinated landuse and transport planning as a tool for economic competitiveness' (Hirschhorn et al. 2020, 6).
In this way, planning for public transport needs to be organized through governance with 'policy layering' as a result (Veeneman and Mulley 2018).However, over time, layering often results in complex, inefficient, and costly governance processes, with the risk of incoherent and inconsistent policy goals between different planning bodies (Rayner and Howlett 2009).In some cases, layering can cause 'parallel policymaking', where unintended conflicting goals 'exists in parallel', making integration of strategic planning goals between various scales virtually impossible (Isaksson, Antonson, and Eriksson 2017, 56).

Methods and empirical background
The empirical material in this paper consists of two sets of data: public planning documents and personal interviews with municipal planners.We have analysed comprehensive plans (in Swedish 'Översiktsplan') ratified between 2012 and 2020 in 21 Swedish municipalities (see Table 1 for overview).All comprehensive plans ratified by Swedish municipalities are published in Swedish and made publicly available online.All citations have been translated from Swedish to English by the authors.These municipalities are situated in two nonmetropolitan counties in Sweden -Örebro and Östergötland 1quite closely located to the Stockholm region (see Figure 1).As mentioned previously, the geographical territories of these counties correspond to the political-administrative territories of the RTA.
Personal interviews were carried out with planners in ten municipalities during the spring of 2020. 2 The selection was made to cover a variety of geographical structures such as urban/rural, big/small, as well as locations within each county (central and peripheral).The interview data have been used to support the analysis of planning for public transport at the local scale through the comprehensive plans, and to investigate how relations with the RTA is perceived by the municipalities, and how these planners experience the effects of rescaling.In this context, relations can be expressed in form of 'tensions' when the interviewees talk about grievances, problems, and conflicts regarding their relationship with the RTA.Due to the nature of our interviews, and the small pool of individuals we were speaking to, we have decoupled the quotes from their respective municipal affiliation to protect the anonymity of our respondents and is only referenced in the text as 'interview 1-10'.All interviewees hold the position as public planner within their respective municipality.The analysis of the municipal comprehensive plans is based on qualitative content analysis (Merriam 2009) and divided into three steps.The first step involved the careful and systematic reading of each comprehensive plan with attention on how the aspect of public transport is integrated in the plans, trying to identify different planning themes related to public transport.Emphasis was placed on the overall objectives and framing of public transport in the comprehensive plans and the way in which public transport was made part of wider goals and measurable targets.
The second step of the analysis meant a re-reading of the comprehensive plans, and then investigating how public transport connected to different themes was prioritized by the municipalities in the plans.Prioritization was operationalized in two ways: frequency, i.e. the number of times public transport was mentioned in the documents in the context of each theme; and integration, i.e. if, and how, public transport was described as a component of the overall planning goal and expressed as a target of that theme.
The third step of the analysis involved a comparison between the level of prioritization of the different themes within each municipality, resulting in a numeric scoring (1-4) based on this comparison.The theme with the highest priority in the planning document (i.e.most frequent and/or most integrated) was given the highest score (4), and then in descending order (3, 2, 1).If two or more themes were found to be equally prioritized, they were given the same score.If a theme was not included at all, it was given zero (0) as a score.Based on this scoring the result of the analysis was then visualized in four maps (see Figure 1).
The paper presents a unilaterally municipal/local perspective, focusing exclusively on how public transport is an element integrated for planning through the scale 'left behind'.National and regional targets related to public transport are used in the paper to give a wider policy context for the paper but are not included in the analysis.This means that there can potentially be both overlapping and conflicting planning targets for public transport between the local, regional, and national scale (cf.Stjernborg and Mattisson 2016), but the existence of such overlaps and conflicts are not investigated or scrutinized in this paper.

Comprehensive spatial planning in Swedish municipalities
It has been mandatory for Swedish municipalities to develop and ratify comprehensive plans since 1987 (SFS 1987:383).Starting with a strong focus on planning of physical land use, comprehensive plans have over time expanded into wider strategic planning endeavours (Persson 2020).Boverket (in English, 'the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building, and Planning') describes the municipal comprehensive plans as follows.
The comprehensive plan has a central role in the municipalities' work to formulate strategies for long-term sustainable development.A comprehensive plan must specify both a longterm and overall development strategy as well as the basic features of the intended use of land and water areas.The comprehensive plan must show how the municipality intends to take public interests into account as well as how national interests must be met and how environmental quality standards must be followed.The plan must also provide guidance for how the built environment is to be used, developed, and preserved.(Boverket 2022) To facilitate the coordination of local and regional planning tasks, Boverket (2021) encourages Swedish municipalities to consider aspects for which they have low or indirect power to decide upon in their comprehensive plans.For public transport specifically, municipalities are asked to take the following into consideration when developing their comprehensive plans: . Develop guidelines for public transport planning.
. Work with prioritized public transport routes.These are often linked to places with many residents, workplaces, or businesses with many visitors.
It can therefore be argued that Swedish municipalities receive somewhat 'mixed messages' from the national authorities when it comes to planning for public transport.On the one hand, their formal planning mandate has been placed with the RTA, while on the other, municipalities are encouraged to consider public transport in their comprehensive plans.In addition, transport services serving the elderly and school children are still a municipal responsibility.
It is within this context and planning system that the Swedish municipalities plan for public transport in different ways in their comprehensive plans, and which will be explored in the next section.

Resultslocal planning for public transport
This section, presenting the results of the study, is structured to follow the three research questions defined in the introduction.These target aspects of values that guide the local planning, the local strategies in this context, and perceptions of tensions between the local and the regional scale of planning.

What values guide the municipal planning for public transport in Sweden?
First, it can be established that each municipality in this study has continued to plan for public transport in their comprehensive plans, despite having lost the formal mandate to do so in 2012.At first glance, this could perhaps be explained by Boverket (2021) encouraging municipalities to develop routes and roads for public transport.However, when studying these plans more closely, it becomes clear that the municipalities have a much wider approach to public transport planning than what is stipulated by Boverket, described above.We have identified four main themes that are attributed to public transport in municipal planning (see Figure 1 for summary, and the next section for a detailed analysis).
The first theme relates to 'land-use planning' and here public transport is described as an integral part of the physical planning of housing, public service facilities such as schools and elderly care, infrastructure in the form of roads, bicycle paths, pedestrian walkways, etc., as well as water and sewage systems for which municipalities are also responsible.Public transport is also a key factor for wider strategizing in land-use planning, such as densification and suburban development.
The second theme is the 'functionality of the transport system' where planning for public transport is made in relation to facilitate commuting, and the provision of transport options for tourists and second homeowners.This theme integrates with local strategies for carpools, bike-and car-sharing, etc.The dissemination and functionality of the public transport system is also described as an important factor for local attractiveness and a key component in the municipalities strategizing to attract new residents and businesses, especially in nonurban locations.Several municipalities also make suggestions for new routes, the development of new stops, and timetables for public transport.
The third theme puts public transport in the light of being a 'welfare service', where citizens' mobility and access to welfare institutions is described to be highly dependent on public transport.Especially for elderly, children, and other socially vulnerable or low-income groups, access to public transport is often expressed as a citizenry right for everyday mobility by the municipalities.
The fourth theme relates to the relationship between public transport and 'climate change mitigation'.Here public transport is valued in relation to efforts to reduce passenger car traffic and thus reduce CO 2 emissions, and to improve air quality and congestion.There is also integration between municipal planning for public transport with wider strategies for meeting targets set by Agenda 2030 and other international agreements with relevance to climate change.
When investigating more closely how the municipalities prioritize between these different planning values a varied but clear pattern emerges as illustrated in Figure 1.All municipalities include perspectives of public transport in relation to both 'land-use planning' and the 'functionality of the transport system' in their plans.In fact, most municipalities seem to prioritize these two values over 'welfare services' and 'climate change mitigation'.Only three municipalities prioritize welfare services and/or climate change mitigation in relation to public transport over land-use planning (i.e.Ödeshög, Vadstena and Söderköping).At the same time, four municipalities did not include perspectives on public transport in relation to welfare services (i.e.Askersund) or climate change mitigation (i.e.Söderköping, Valemarsvik and Ydre) at all (all white in the two bottom maps in Figure 1).This is particularly noteworthy as acting towards climate change mitigation and the provision of welfare services are highly prioritized in the comprehensive plans in general, but apparently not in relation to the planning for public transport in these four municipalities.
Building from the first part of the analysis, we now continue in the next subsection with a more detailed analysis of the way in which the different dimensions of values related to public transport are integrated in the comprehensive planning of Swedish municipalities.

In what ways have Swedish municipalities continued to plan for public transport after the rescaling of public transport in Sweden?
Starting with public transport as a value in the 'land-use planning' of municipalities, this is expressed in several different ways.The connection between public transport and planning for housing is acknowledged in all municipalities in this study, both in relation to urban and rural areas.For instance, Laxå (2015, 46) states that 'the municipality shall primarily plan for development in the countryside in proximity to existing public transport, where so is possible, to strengthen it.At the same time can new residential areas create conditions for new markets for public transport '. Similarly, in Söderköping (2015, 18) it is underlined that 'the principle is that buildings are added in towns, nodes and along public transport routes that connect the towns'.Especially in relation to densification, the connection between public transport and physical planning is very explicitly expressed by several of the municipalities, here illustrated by the Kumla comprehensive plan: To make changes in existing areas in a growing city is unavoidable and can be seen as utilizing land more efficiently.By densifying development to central Kumla will the market for service in the city center increase, while transport needs decrease, the market for public transport increase and existing infrastructure (streets, infrastructure, district heating) be utilized.This will in turn result in fewer investments compared to building in completely new areas.(Kumla 2020, 29) However, from the interviews, we learn that this strategy for land-use planning to create new markets for public transport is not as easy as portrayed in the planning documents.
As an example, one of the smaller municipalities had ambitions to develop new housing and societal services around an existing, but small, train station to create a 'mid-range market' for commuters (compared with central and remote locations).However, an interviewee explained that before these local plans were realized, the RTA decided to reduce train traffic on that line for budgetary reasons, and the municipality was forced to cancel their plans (Interview 2).Another example comes from one of the bigger municipalities with several ongoing large-scale development projects.Here, one of the planners informed us that 'some newly built areas will never be able to carry public transport because we have not provided space for public transport there', as the streets are too narrow.'Sometimes it is enough to increase the width of the street with as little as 15 centimeters for a bus to be able to turn [around a street corner], but we have missed it because it is not a standardized measurement' (Interview 4).
Moving on, public transport and physical planning are also integrated with the overall 'functionality of the transport system' in several of the municipalities.For instance, in Norrköping, this is expressed through its comprehensive plan in the following way: 'commuter parking areas should be developed in the outskirts of the city and by public transport routes in rural areas' (Norrköping 2017, 34).In addition, to be able to achieve their plans for the physical planning of commuter parking areas and other transport infrastructure, many of the municipalities acknowledge the need for collaboration with the RTA.As an example, in Örebro, it is stated that 'the municipality shall together with RTA investigate strategic locations for commuter parking, to change between car, public transport, and bike' (Örebro 2018, Chapter 5).However, expectations of the collaboration with the RTA are also sometimes expressed in relation to the planning of the actual public traffic operations, which is clearly beyond the formal mandate of the municipalities.Nonetheless, like Åtvidaberg, several municipalities express plans to 'together with [the RTA], work to maintain and develop public transport lines within the municipality' (Åtvidaberg 2018, 29).
In addition, several of the municipalities also engage in other ways with targeting the functionality of public transport in the overall transport system.Primarily, it is considered to provide a backbone of the development and maintenance of new and existing commuting routes for work and studies, both within a municipality and within the region, connecting different municipalities to a regional transport network.One of the municipalities believes that 'new bus routes to [neighboring] Kumla and Hallsberg, with good frequency, are crucial for the municipality to develop and function even better in a regional context' (Lekeberg 2014, 123).Another important element of public transport function as a carrier of commuter traffic is related to the (improved) speed of travel and the relative convenience of transferring between different modes of travel.This in turn, is considered to have a relevance for both local and regional development.It is explained that 'public transport plays an important role in commuting and regional growth.Fast connections with good transfer opportunities for commuter parking are important to make it attractive to choose public transport' (Åtvidaberg 2018, 28).Similar reasoning connecting the speed and comfort of commuting by public transport with local and regional development, is found in Askersund, where it is argued that: Commuting opportunities by bus and car to and from Askersund need to be improved so that more people can choose to live or work in the municipality […] With improved frequency, reduced travel time and improved comfort commuting could be substantially increased.A goal is that the overall travel time, by public transport, to [the regional center] Örebro shall be reduced to 40 minutes.It would mean a lot for interest to relocate to Askersund.To facilitate commuting by public transport and carpooling, commuter parking areas have been developed in Askersund.(Askersund 2016, 58) In a similar way, several of the municipalities connect the role of public transport in the overall functionality of the transport system to local attractiveness and population growth.For instance, in Degerfors, access to good public transport is considered a factor for the development of rural areas, by stating that 'we now see an increased interest to live in the countryside.With increased efforts on public transport would in-migration to these areas most likely increase' (Degerfors 2016, 45).Similarly, it is argued that it is important for the municipality that this work is carried out well to strengthen the attractiveness for the entire municipality and further the possibility to live and work in the countryside.Secure, available, and safe stops, commuter parking areas and not at least a close dialogue with travelers are also of importance for a well-functioning public transport.(Valdemarsvik 2018, 38-39) Public transport planning also plays a crucial role for many of the municipalities when it comes to the development of municipal 'welfare services', albeit to a lesser extent than previously discussed themes.However, public transport is seen as both a welfare service, and as a means of accessing other welfare services by several of the municipalities.For instance, 'the municipality shall work towards a public transport that is available also for people with disabilities' (Degerfors 2016, 47), and it is acknowledged that 'since women, children, youth and low-income household use public transport more than men and high-income households so [public transport] is also a central issue for justice and equality' (Kumla 2020, 51).Below follows an example of the combined perspective of public transport being both a welfare service and providing access to welfare services: Public cultural facilities should be located so that they are accessible for the groups that primarily will use the facility.As an example, facilities that to a large degree will be utilized by children and youths should be localized in areas accessible by bike and with access to public transport, so that children can go there by themselves.(Örebro 2018, Chapter 8) The role of public transport for 'climate change mitigation' is acknowledged by most municipalities to some degree.However, several municipalities only mention this role of public transport indirectly or in passing, often with a reference to reducing passenger car traffic.For instance, it is argued that 'a commuter train connection gives Finspång more opportunities for communication with the region's core areas of Norrköping and Linköping, contributes to regional enlargement, facilitates people's everyday lives, and contributes to a climate-smarter Sweden' (Finspång 2021, Chapter 7).In some cases, the relationship between public transport, private cars, and the environment is more explicit, albeit brief, like in Laxå where it is stated that 'an improved public transport shall also be sought towards within the municipality, focusing on buses.These measures should promote a reduction in car use within the municipality' (Laxå 2015, 11).However, in some cases, the connection between the planning for public transport and climate change mitigation is very explicit, like in Linköping, which is one of the larger municipalities in this study: In rural areas, the dimension of ecologically sustainable developmentat a structural levelis about locating new buildings, both new housing and businesses, in relation to existing societal physical structures.An important part is limiting emissions from communications.This means that the structure will provide increased conditions for commuting to work via public transport or by bicycle.(Linköping 2014, 11) With these findings in mind, we now continue in the next subsection where we investigate the municipal perceptions of tensions in the relationship between the regional and local scale of planning in relation to public transport.

Municipal perceptions of 'tensions' between the old and the new scales of planning after rescaling
From the interviews, we learn that the 'ceding of power' (Havlík 2018) from the old scale to the new has not been unproblematic for the municipalities.One interviewee described it as somewhat of an 'identity crisis' for them to lose control over the planning for public transport, a sentiment shared by several others (Interview 7).'What is our role in public transport now?' another interviewee asked while arguing that 'public transport is an integrated part of land-use planning', referencing important planning responsibilities at a local scale (interview 7).A third one said that 'when the RTA was formed in 2012 this was "hard to chew" for the municipality [as] the municipality did not want to lose responsibility for public transport […] and when that happened, people got moody' (Interview 1).However, it was not just the loss of control that caused the situation, it was also the perceived incapacity of the RTA to take over, the same interviewee explained: 'People were not moody just because of the lost power over public transport, people were also moody about the lack of competence that existed within the RTA.They [the RTA] had no knowledge about what was needed to run public transport' (Interview 1).Over time however, several interviewees reported that the planning competence within the RTA has improved.As one of them explained 'It is completely different today […] over time the RTA stocked up on people who were thinking strategically' (Interview 7).Others agree.'New staff came into the RTA after a reorganization and [they] do a good job' another one said (interview 1).A third interviewee claimed that 'it has been a huge difference since management was shifted in the RTA' (Interview 9).
Traffic and routing seem to also be a cause for tensions.In several of the comprehensive plans, accounts are given of the municipality striding into action when the regional supply of public transport is deemed insufficient.It is often in particular areas of a municipality with lower residential density, longer distances between stops, and where existing traffic supply is considered too low.One of the municipalities claims that 'public transport [in the countryside] is strongly restricted and needs to be improved.Both in terms of frequency and in terms of routing' (Laxå 2015, 49).Another municipality offered for many years a free municipal bus route -'Albogaexpressen'that connected the main centres of the municipality.However, this line closed in 2020 for budgetary reasons (Söderköping 2015; SVT 2019).A third example of traffic-related tensions states that 'the municipality will work together with commercial actors to find alternative solutions for public transport travel' (Ödeshög 2020, 165).One common way of addressing such issues of no, or too little, public transport availability is to establish routes with 'complimentary' or on-demand traffic provided by the municipality.In one municipality it is explained that complementary traffic is a municipal service that is offered to residents that lack access to public transport or who are far from the closest bus stop.Complementary traffic is available for everyone who has at least one kilometer to the nearest bus stop and provides them the opportunity to take a taxi for the same price as regional bus service.(Hallsberg 2016, 103) An additional source of tensions between the old and the new scale relates to money.In all municipalities, a switch of taxation has occurred, where taxes for public transport are now collected on the regional level.For the municipalities, this meant a loss of tax income but not necessarily that all costs for public transport have disappeared.Several interviewees talked about the frustration of spending municipal funds on complementary services, where the traffic supply provided by the RTA was deemed insufficient in relation to the municipality's own assessment.'Before, this was financed through the RTA' one interviewee explained when talking about a specific bus route bordering a neighbouring county, 'but now the invoice is sent to the municipality instead' (Interview 6).Several of the municipalities also disagree with the RTA on how much money can be spent on public transport.One interviewee described the situation in the following way: The RTA and the municipalities are in agreement on the 'dream scenario' for public transport, that is how one would like it to be, but it is [in] the view of economy that things differ.It is when public transport is translated into money that discussion occurs, how much is it allowed to cost?Here the municipalities and the RTA are not in agreeance.(Interview 5) However, when analysing the interview data more closely, we find that the reported tensions between the municipalities and the RTA differ in terms of location, population size, and density.Overall, municipalities with larger populations and urban settlement structures were experiencing less tensions in their collaboration with the RTA compared with municipalities with smaller populations and rural settlements (see Table 1 for population size).Large municipalities 'have "stronger muscles"' in relation to the RTA, one interviewee explained (Interview 9).At the same time, it is not as simple as to say that all small municipalities experience more tensions in their relationship with the RTA compared with larger ones.Small municipalities located in high-capacity transport corridors, or along a county boarder facing towards the Stockholm metropolitan region, reported less tensions than municipalities elsewhere.Despite not always reaching the same conclusions about public transport priorities, one interviewee representing a small but highly trafficked municipality said: 'overall it is a positive tone' (Interview 9).This can be contrasted with a similar sized municipality located along a county boarder not facing towards the Stockholm region, where the interviewee described the collaboration as 'being held hostage' by the RTA, and who had investigated 'if [the municipality] could change county' in hope that they would have improved public transport services if they collaborated with a different RTA (Interview 3).
Regardless of population size, organizing public transport in rural areas is a cause for tensions in the view of the municipalities.'We recognize ourselves in the small municipalities' one interviewee from one of the largest municipalities said, when asked about public transport in the countryside (interview 8).In relation to rural areas, 'public transport is not just a factual question, but all of a sudden also a value issueare we to have a countryside or are we not to have a countryside?' another interviewee explained (Interview 3).A third one said 'one cannot meet in the dialogue regarding the countryside and public transport.The RTA has a too big urban focus' (Interview 2).Several of the interviewees also connect the rural traffic to the opinions of the local population who still hold the municipalities accountable for changes in public transport, despite the RTA formally being in charge.One interviewee described it as closing a route due to low coverage someplace else is pretty uncontroversial, but when a route that is regarded as a societal service in the countryside [gets shut down], then it gets pretty intensive.It [public transport] is about providing service to the countryside.(Interview 5) Thus, in summation, tensions between the old and the new scale after rescaling in the view of the municipalities are attributed to several different factors.What is clear, however, is that these perceived tensions are not described equally among all municipalities, and the interviewees account for tensions varying, not just geographically, but also over time.With these findings in mind, we now turn to our concluding discussion.

Concluding discussion
The aim of this paper has been to contribute to a qualitative understanding of rescaling of planning tasks and how this impacts planning strategies and governance relations between different scales.The empirical case for the discussion has been the planning for public transport in Sweden, where a recent reform meant the rescaling of this task from the local to the regional scale (SFS 2010(SFS :1065)).By focusing on the scale 'left behind' through this reform, it is explained how municipalities continue to integrate the element of public transport for their planning.
When zooming in on planning values, planning strategies, and governance tensionsas described abovethrough the lens of the rescaling, several points of discussion can be brought forward.Firstly, this case of rescaling of planning for public transport from the local and to the regional scale proves how processes of 'scaling out' and 'layering' are intertwined (Veeneman and Mulley 2018).This can potentially be a source of both 'good and evil'.If these layers are aligning, i.e. similar priorities or plans are presented by both the formal planning authority (i.e. the RTA) and the municipality (i.e. the scale 'left behind'), local plans facilitate the integration of regional plans, and vice versa.Our data shows that it seems easier for municipalities with high-volume public transport to integrate local plans with regional plans.Howeverand most evident for sparsely populated municipalitieslack of alignment and integration causes tensions between the new and the old scale of power (Havlík 2018;Hrelja et al. 2017).Albeit some of these tensions might be the cause of the different planning logics between local and regional public transport (as described earlier by Hansson (2022)), others are surely a result of 'parallel policymaking' (Isaksson, Antonson, and Eriksson 2017) causing conflicting and/or inconsistent policy goals between the local and regional scale.
Secondly, our results also call for greater geographical sensitivity in understanding the effects of rescaling of policy and planning.In our study, the formal loss of planning mandate has been equal among all the municipalities, but the practical outcome differs greatly between them.As an example, municipal land-use planning is often used with the aim to create new and better markets for public transport.However, with spatially uneven regional plans, priority is given to areas with high-capacity transport corridors connecting urban centres and other densely populated areas with potential in increased ridership (cf.Johansson et al. 2017;Portinson Hyllander 2021).Consequently, smaller, and less populous municipalities, have less market potential to start with and willif they do not happen to be located along a transport corridor connecting two urban centreshave more difficulty aligning and integrating their plans with the RTA's plans, compared with larger and more populous municipalities.This conclusion might not be 'news' in the realm of public transport research, but in the context of 'rescaling' it showcases how the actual effects of rescaling can be spatially uneven for the scale 'left behind', albeit the formal outcome is assumed to be the same.
Finally, we would like to underline the nonlinear development of new spaces, structures, and instruments for governance that emerge through rescaling (cf.Gualini 2006;Havlík 2018;Hrelja et al. 2017;Keating 2020Keating , 2013)).Albeit the quite harshly worded municipal expressions of mistrust, grievances, and suggested incompetence with the RTA to plan for public transport at the time of when the rescaling first took place, these are sentiments that have gradually changed over time.Tensions and other collaborative hindrances causing 'scalar mismatch', is by no means temporally fixed.Taken together, this highlights the fact that intrinsic governance capacity is only bestowed on local actors commanding territorial resources that the new scale of power needs, and at a point in time when the planning institutions at the scale 'left behind' are willing to so do.
In all, this empirical case on rescaling planning for public transport, confirms the relational understanding of such reforms and avoid the simplistic view of these to represent 'clean cut' and an unproblematic movement of planning tasks from one scale to another.This points at the policy implication that it is an imperative for national governments, and other governmental bodies with mandate to initiate a rescaling process, to facilitate dialogues across planning scales to aid in this transition.This is particularly true in those cases where the new scale is not given all the necessary tools to carry out its new planning responsibility and is thus relying on collaboration with the old scale, like seen with landuse planning and planning for public transport in Sweden.This imperative is increasingly even more important as sector-integrated approaches for planning is becoming a generally endorsed model, thus interconnecting planning tasks placed at different planning scales.

Notes
1.There are additional four municipalities situated within these counties that have been excluded from the analysis, as their current comprehensive spatial plans were ratified before the rescaling of public transport in Sweden took place (i.e.ratified in 2011 or earlier).
2. Each interview lasted approximately 1 h.Each interviewee was asked to review the transcription from the interviews to validate for clarity and avoid misinterpretation.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Prioritization of planning values related to public transport in 21 municipalities.

Table 1 .
Municipalities included in the paper and the year of ratification of their comprehensive plans.NB!The rural/urban duality of the Linköping plan, ratified in 2014 and 2016, respectively (Linköping 2022; SCB 2023).