Abstract
Following the 1985 Transport Act the Department of Transport appointed the Rural Development Commission to administer a Rural Transport Development Fund. The fund of up to £1 m per year started in April 1986. The fund was to `encourage the provision of innovative projects to serve the transport needs of people living in rural areas of England, where these are not already met, or likely to be met, by other public transport services'. As part of that project the Commission has supervised the appointment of county based rural transport advisers, partly supported by a grant from the fund. This report evaluates the activities of these advisers in Cornwall, Devon, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk and Wiltshire.