ABSTRACT
During the 18 years of Conservative rule from 1979 to 1997 the role of the State in relation to the ownership of Britain’s transport industries and the provision of public transport services was transformed. The motivation for this had very little to do with transport itself; rather it was but one aspect of a much larger political agenda. The ideological enthusiasm which drove through the reforms was similar in kind (but opposite in direction) to the programme of the post-1945 Labour Government in establishing the Welfare State.
