Making Tracks: The Politics of Local Rail Transport

This text presents case studies of rail transport policy-making in two UK passenger transport authority areas and reviews the factors informing such policy-making. The book contributes to transport geography by firstly explaining why the actual policies implemented in Strathclyde and Merseyside were pursued, and secondly, the continuing development of the political science theory of "the urban policy regime". By analyzing how policy was developed under the "city-regional" (Strathclyde) and the "public choice" (Merseyside), geographical structures of local governance, this book demonstrates that the spatial organization of local institutions plays a powerful role in determining the operation of the local "regime" that is the elite group of individuals who lead policy-making.