This book surveys the latest changes in the turbulent area of airline deregulation. The authors' third collaboration on the subject, it deals with such current trends and topics as the proliferation of mergers and takeovers and the stategies and tactics involved in price wars and other marketing ventures.At the same time Deregulation and the Future of Intercity Passenger Travel is much more than an update on changes in the airline industry. It studies all the major systems of intercity passenger transportation - automobiles, buses, trains, airplanes - from the point of view of their interdependency. And it extends well beyond recent events to embrace the transportation history of much of this century, discussing the historical precedents and outcomes that have collectively given impetus to the trends in operation today, with special emphasis on the patterns of governmental subsidies and regulations. The authors also forecast probable developments in the next century, examining the impacts of various assumptions about future public policies, changes in technology, demographic patterns, and consumer preferences.The first part of the book focuses on the U.S. experience with airline deregulation, including changes in distribution channels and the travel agency business as well as the effects on airline employees and passengers. The second part takes up the economics of competition among the major modes in intercity travel.John R. Meyer is James W Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Economic Growth at Harvard University. Clinton V. Oster, Jr., is Associate Professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Director of the Transportation Research Center at Indiana University. Deregulation and the Future of Intercity Passenger Travel is fifteenth in the series Regulation of Economic Activity, edited by Richard Schmalensee.

This Policy Focus Report was a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Regional Plan Association and their joint venture America 2050. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has been engaged in a series of projects with the Regional Plan Association for more than a decade. The partnership spawned the national initiative known as America 2050, which is aimed at meeting the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation, in preparation for a population increase of about 130 million by 2050. A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions - large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. High-speed rail is capable of linking employment centers and population hubs in corridors up to 600 miles in length in 11 U.S. megaregions.This Policy Focus Report was a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Regional Plan Association and their joint venture America 2050. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has been engaged in a series of projects with the Regional Plan Association for more than a decade. The partnership spawned the national initiative known as America 2050, which is aimed at meeting the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation, in preparation for a population increase of about 130 million by 2050. A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions - large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. High-speed rail is capable of linking employment centers and population hubs in corridors up to 600 miles in length in 11 U.S. megaregions.

American transportation has undergone many technological revolutions: from sailing ships to steam ships; from passenger trains and urban rail transit to airplanes and automobiles. Normally, the government has allowed and even encouraged these revolutions, but for some reason the federal government is spending billions of dollars trying to preserve and build obsolete rail transit and passenger train lines, including high-speed trains that cost more but are less than half as fast as flying. O'Toole asks why passenger trains have been singled out -- and whether this policy makes sense. -- adapted from jacket