The aim of this paper is 3-fold: 1) to give a brief historical account of changes in the financing of public transport in The Netherlands; 2) to identify landmark decisions in policy developments to improve the economic and financial performances of the public transport system; and 3) to describe the work of three commissions to increase the share of public transport in meeting rising travel demands and, at the same time, to reduce the level of subsidy. Section 2 describes briefly the organisation of public transport in The Netherlands. Section 3 provides some background information and gives a broad outline of policy developments from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s. Section 4 describes more recent developments in the 1990s and reports on the findings of three government commissions (Houben, Brokx and De Boer) whose study reports and recommendations are likely to have a lasting effect on future organisation and operating of public transport in urban and regional areas. Section 5 ends with a few concluding remarks.
Samenvatting