Regulation, deregulation, and the sustainability of transport monopolies

The main point of this paper is that most transport enterprises should be thrown open to competition. The effects and implications for enterprises which have a natural monopoly in some activities but not in others have been explored. The special nature of scheduled service has been recognised as qualifying the justification for deregulation, but has not been seen as sufficient to warrant a highly regulated airline system. Service frequency could be assured through market mechanisms. Finally, it has been suggested that where monopoly is readily sustainable as in the case of rail and the road (track) system, there are grounds for regulation of rail rates on road competitive freight.