The central theme of this paper is what can be learned from abroad, when trying to reach a better organisation of the public transport in the Netherlands. It is pointed out that it makes little sense to go on symptom-curing in public transport. The real problems causing the symptoms have to be found in order to find long term solutions. The question is thus 'Why did it go wrong and how can one make sure it does not happen again?'. It is argued that regulation and market forces can be combined, and that market failure is no reason to accept regulatory failure. The key to this is 'incentives'. After a preliminary exploration of the Dutch regulatory arrangements in public transport, it is looked at some foreign cases with emphasis placed on France and Germany.
Abstract