Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the main economic theories of regulation, namely public and private interest theories and how they relate to the public transport sector in general in terms of ownership, economic deregulation, competitive regulation through tendered bidding and negotiation linked to actionable yardstick benchmarking. The chapter also reviews various models used in the provision of bus services and summarises the main lessons learnt over the last 30 years, drawing on experiences in competition and ownership.