The bus is the most patronised of all land-based public passenger mode but is seen as a somewhat unglamorous means of supporting mobility and accessibility, in contrast to rail - heavy and light, yet offers so much to the travelling public as well as offering attractive sustainability opportunities. This book reflects the author's perspective on issues of importance to the preservation and health of the bus sector. The twenty one chapters cover the themes of institutional reform, performance measurement and monitoring, service quality, costing and pricing of services including commercial and non-commercial contracts, travel choice and demand, integrated bus-based systems, and public transport policy, especially challenges in growing patronage.

Professor David Hensher is the Founding Director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) at The University of Sydney. David is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Recipient of the 2009 International Association of Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR) Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition for his long-standing and exceptional contribution to IATBR as well as to the wider travel behaviour community; Recipient of the 2006 Engineers Australia Transport Medal for lifelong contribution to transportation, recipient of the Smart 2013 Premier Award for Excellence in Supply Chain Management, the 2014 Institute of Transportation Engineers (Australia and New Zealand) Transport Profession Award, and the 2016 Award for Outstanding Research as part of the inaugural University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence. David is also the recipient of the 2019 John Shaw Medal which honours an industry champion who has made a lasting contribution to Australia's roads. In 2018 David was selected as one of 25 academics at the University of Sydney who have made a significant impact through engaging with industry and government. He has published over 650 papers in leading international transport and economics journals as well as 16 books. He has over 54,000 citations of his contributions in Google scholar and a Scopus H-index of 65.

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Organisation and ownership of public transport service
Chapter 3: User needs and impact on public transport
Chapter 4: Contracting options
Chapter 5: Contract areas and service quality issues in public transit provision: some thoughts on the european and australian context
Chapter 6: Performance-based quality contracts in bus service provision
Chapter 7: Performance-based quality contracts for the bus sector: Delivering social and commercial value for money
Chapter 8: Delivering value for money to government through efficient and effective public transit service continuity: Some thoughts
Chapter 9: Melbourne's Public Transport Franchising: Lessons for PPPs
Chapter 10: Establishing a Fare Elasticity Regime for Urban Passenger Transport
Chapter 11: Preserving the symmetry of estimated commuter travel elasticities
Chapter 12: TRESIS (Transport and Environmental Strategy Impact Simulator): A Case Study
Chapter 13: Productivity Measurement in the Urban Bus Sector
Chapter 14: A service quality index for area-wide contract performance assessment
Chapter 15: Developing a service quality index (SQI) in the provision of commercial bus contracts
Chapter 16: Non-commercial contract reimbursement: the institute of transport studies (ITS) model
Chapter 17: A bus-based transitway or light rail? Continuing the saga on choice versus blind commitment
Chapter 18: The future of exclusive busways: the Brazilian experience
Chapter 19: The imbalance between car and public transport use in urban Australia: why does it exist?
Chapter 20: Urban public transport delivery in Australia: issues and challenges in retaining and growing patronage
Chapter 21: Urban public transport agendas and challenges
References
Subject Index