What conclusions can be drawn about bus deregulation in Britain?

This paper concludes the series on deregulation, updating the statistics presented in the introductory paper to cover the financial year 1994–1995, and output from the National Travel Survey 1992–94 published by the Department of Transport in 1995. Broad trends match those described earlier, but fuller analysis is given of the link between car availability and bus ridership, and changes in trip length/passenger‐kilometres. Trends in London, the metropolitan areas, Northern Ireland and rural areas are discussed separately. A commentary is given on the papers from other contributors, especially those analysing aggregate trends, and Ben Colson's paper on the Stagecoach experience. Evidence cited in the latter on the effects of fares experiments is analysed to derive elasticities, indicating that in some cases fare reductions may give a net revenue increase from the viewpoint of an individual operator. Comment is made on recent policy developments, and the growing concentration of ownership in Britain, prior to outlining a possible way forward.