This thesis is about the idea of public transport and the discussions stirred in the media during changes in ownership. More specifically it is a study of the historical situation of Stockholm, Sweden, where the periods chosen are the 1910s, 1960s and 1990s.During the 1910s Stockholm’s first and largest tram company was taken over by thecity, and a period of public ownership began, which in the 1960s changed form whenthe county council took over the city’s principal authority and formed the politicallyadministered company SL (Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, Greater Stockholm LocalTransit Company). Between these periods the word kollektivtrafik (public transport)was established in the Swedish language. This study describes and compares the ideasconcerning the phenomenon of public transport. The aim of the study is to analyse the ideas, values and ideals concerning public transport in the media, defined as newspapers. The questions asked are: What doespublic transport involve as phenomenon and concept? For whom is the publictransport, and who is the owner? Which depictions of the passenger are presentedand what is their position in the traffic and the city? The conclusions drawn are that while the aims of the traffic-companies are mostly the same regarding the passengers and the economic priorities, the methods and technologies for realising these changes over time. The almost non-existingsurveillance in the 1910s tramcar, the emerging radio communication in the 1960sunderground railway of Stockholm and the establishing of video monitoring in the 1990s is one of the processes that suggest the changed situation of the passenger. Another line of development is the political question of ownership, which in theperiod of the study is ended by a deregulation of Stockholm’s public transport. The changes in ownership runs parallel to the evolution of the concept kollektivtrafik andthe question of who is to use and who is to own the public transport — but offer no final explanation to these maers.