Introduction and Focus of Analysis

In the 1990s, Germany followed numerous countries in the European Union and elsewhere which were altering their regulatory frameworks in order to promote competition for public bus transport services. When assessing international attempts to introduce competition into the public transport market, one encounters a wide range of competitive and contractual arrangements, some of which are quite controversial. For example, controversy arose with the introduction of route tendering in London in 1984 as well as the deregulation of the local bus markets in Great Britain in 1986 and in New Zealand in 1989 (see Banister 1985; Beesley and Glaister 1985, and Gwilliam et al. 1985). Over the years, as more countries and regions undertook regulatory reforms, valuable experience about the functioning of competition-based regimes was gained, and many useful lessons were learned. Such lessons have served to improve upon existing models, and as a result, more countries have decided to follow the liberalization path.