The regimes of regulation of the bus industries of ten Western European countries are reviewed. These are Eire, West Germany, Italy, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal. In each case the legal and institutional basis of regulation, the structure and performance of the industry under regulation, recent regulatory reform, and the potential for future reform, are discussed. The British experience of deregulation is compared with the situation in these other countries, and an attempt is made to explain why others have been so tardy in following the UK pattern. An almost universal reluctance to accept British style open entry to the industry is observed. This is explained partly in terms of different perceptions of the effectiveness of controls on competitive pressures within the existing regimes, but mainly in terms of the greater emphasis placed on the use of local political control of the bus industry as an instrument of social and economic policy. (Author/publisher).
Samenvatting