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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This research examines the impact of bus degregulation at the level of the company. It follows a case study approach. The findings are analysed in the context of contestability theory and organisation theories, as well as empirical evidence. The first part of this research views the bus industry in terms of the effects that the regulatory system has had on the industry's suppliers, and examines the roots of the legal provisions of the 1985 Transport Act. The second part focuses on the organisational context. It establishes the challenges that bus companies face by reference to the pre-1985 situation, and provides an interpretation of strategic responses in the early post-1985 era. In addition, it introduces the type of strategic options open to companies operating in declining markets, and outlines a theoretical organisational framework within which this case's organisational changes are to be analysed. Finally, the research design and research methods are presented. The third part consists of a detailed analysis of the selected case study company: Midland Fox Limited. It introduces the local market structure and basic data on the company. The major patterns of corporate strategy are presented and analysed, and key areas of managerial activity studied. The competitive behaviour of the company is then discussed in the context of competitive events that have occurred in the market. The fourth and concluding part of this case study research discusses the most significant issues arising from this investigation in terms of their implications for future developments in the bus industry.

A methodology is presented herewith to assist in the systematic evaluation of operational conditions of the vital and dynamic processing facilities of airport terminals, which could enhance planning and management practices adopted for airports. The methodology focusses on the relation between capacity of individual facilities and levels of service that passengers experience in them, whereby important operational aspects of those facilities are examined and analysed. The developed methodology consists of two main parts: Capacity procedure, and Level of Service procedure. The first establishes the relations (Performance models) between demand levels (flows) that may possibly be accommodated by individual facilities, and some service measures of particular relevance to passengers that could be used to assess the performance of facilities when subjected to various demand levels. To accomplish this, simulation techniques are utilized to synthesize required information. In the second, the way by which a framework of service standards could be established is presented. Levels of service are derived by asking passengers (through appropriate surveys) to assess service standards based upon their perception to service conditions at a particular time, and their response to different variations of service resulting at different demand levels. Through this method, Perception-Response models are derived, where they are used in the case studies conducted, to delineate the levels of service for processing facilities of the airport terminal considered.

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The aims of the thesis are to find out the causal mechanism of city farming and to examine the hypothesis that city farming conforms to the conditions of sustainable urban development. As far as methodology is concerned, the thesis employs a realist approach. In the realist methodology, to understand what is as significant as to know why. Therefore, the thesis pays much attention to the conceptualisation of city farming and sustainable urban development. Vacant land in Seoul, the precondition of city farming, occurred basically through the natural process of urban expansion, but most importantly due to the growth-oriented land development policies. City farming is at the moment an opportunistic and illegal use of vacant land under the negligence of planning control. Led by a leading agent, the city farmers on each case site have colonised vacant land through the reality and practice learning. However, city farmers' egoistic action has an unintended consequence of making vacant land an unofficial open space. The thesis also identifies that city farming on the case sites conforms to the elements of sustainable urban development. The elements developed in the thesis are future, nature, participation, equity, and selfreliance. The thesis suggests three criteria for each element with which the hypothesis is examined. The thesis concludes that the modern planning system in South Korea has failed to take into consideration the socio-economic and environmental aspects of city farming. It, therefore, suggests that future planning system promote activities or projects which comply with the principles of sustainable urban development. Although the modern planning system in Seoul has failed to cope with the rapid land use change shown in the case studies, the thesis proposes that the planner's role has become more important than ever before in this age of environmental concerns.

Road development in Saudi Arabia is considered one of the major products of the social and economic development that the country has witnessed in the last two decades. In the last decade, motorways were built to connect major population centres in the Kingdom using high international standards (Figure 1.1). However, the motorway service areas which took place along these motorways sides were incompatible with the motorway system. This disparity in standards between the motorways and the motorway services is related to the planning, design, development, and facilities outcome in these service areas in contrast to similar services provided in more developed countries. Many factors have definitely contributed to the formation of the existing services, because they were the outcome of a set of planning and development procedures which involves different interests from different contributors such as the governmental controlling authorities, the operators of the service areas, and the users themselves.

The current basis of school transport provision by the Local Education Authorities was introduced during the 1940s with the role of facilitating the attendance of pupils at the nearest appropriate school and ensuring that access to education was not based upon a child's place of residence or upon parental means. To meet this objective, the provision of free school transport was considered necessary if a child lived beyond the minimum walking distances, established as two miles for pupils of under eight years of age (eleven years in the case of Northern Ireland) and three miles for older pupils. In addition, Local Education Authorities have wide discretionary powers to provide school transport to pupils not statutorily entitled. During the past twenty years, this basis of provision has received repeated criticism for failing to address the issues of rising expenditure on school transport, equity, road safety and parental choice of school. This thesis, therefore, examines the long term demographic and social trends affecting the provision of school transport services by the Local Education Authorities and the institutional responses to these trends. It also examines the current provision of school transport at individual authority level and the recent changes to both public transport and education legislation, to establish whether there is a case for changing the basis of provision to address these issues. Having established that there is a case for changing the basis of provision, recent proposals for change are reviewed and alternative bases of provision, including the system of school transportation in the USA, are discussed in the context of the issues on which criticism has focussed. This shows that the three alternative bases of provision with the scope to address these issues to the greatest extent are: widening the availability of free school transport to all pupils; reducing the minimum walking distances; and flat-fare charging. These three alternatives are then evaluated, with the economic implications of their introduction, not only for the Local Education Authorities, but also parents and society in general, being assessed. From this, it is concluded that the introduction of a flat-fare charging policy could address all the issues to the greatest extent, whilst offering the most economically feasible alternative basis for the provision of school transport provision by the Local Education Authorities in the UK.