Amazon.com description: Product Description: The objective of this book is to provide a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the factors which determine the cost and production structure of public transit systems. It highlights the conflicting empirical results reported in the relevant literature, explores their origin and, where possible, reconciles them. Using these results as inputs, it then discusses their implications for the likely consequences of transit deregulation in terms of economic efficiency, levels and types of services produced, and the contestability and organization of deregulated transit markets. Based on lessons from transit deregulation policies, which were implemented in a number of countries, and on analysis, the book recommends reregulation policies for different transit markets (eg interurban or intraurban). The book is aimed primarily at an audience of transportation researchers, including economists and planners as well as public policy analysis. It requires, in general, a sound background in economics, mainly microeconomics. Thus, graduate students in economics, geography, urban planning and public policy, and advanced undergraduates with good training in economics can best benefit from this book.