ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a framework of accepted economic principles concerning the efficient operation of a transport system. It describes the history of Government intervention in transport. The book considers the current organization of the industry. It explores the question of these relationships in more detail by considering the problem of transport co-ordination. The book discusses the theoretical merits of some suggested, but untried, means of co-ordination, continue by critically examining the approach currently applied under the legislation of the early ‘sixties and wind up, by investigating some of the possible implications for transport co-ordination of British entry into the European Economic Community. It argues throughout that transport presents a single problem in the sense that public control of one agency inevitably has repercussions on others and should therefore only be undertaken after full consideration of the effects on the whole transport sector.
