Abstract unavailable. Introduction There is a continuing debate about the role of Government in the bus industry, both in respect of ownership and regulation. The UK urban bus sector has recently gone through a profound change as a result of the 1985 Transport Act, which abolished quantity control of bus services in Great Britain (outside London) and allowed subsidy to be paid for bus services only after competitive tendering. At the same time the largest public operator (the National Bus Company) was reorganized and sold to the private sector, and the Passenger Transport Executives and Municipal bus companies were made into separate operating companies, some of which have been privatized....