The objective of this paper is to analyze operating consortium formed by bus companies in the Porto Alegre district area. The study aimed at investigating whether benefits yielded by the network organization model are to be extended to the State of Rio Grande do Sul ("gaucho") consortia. A secondary aim was characterizing its organizational structure, learning about its formation process and identifying which changes it might have caused in public transportation in Porto Alegre. Research was developed on the basis of secondary sources and on interviews carried out with key informants from local transport system consortium partners, public managers and the sector's work representatives. Gaucho consortia experience can be seen as very productive, especially in terms of its managerial and institutional aspects, although its model can be described simply as an immature and incomplete representation of the network organizational model, and, as though, not yet ready to absorb all of its advantages, especially as regards maintainability.
Organizational Network; Bus Company Consortium; Public Transportation Policies