Changes in Transport Organisations within Southeast Asian Cities: Petty Producers to Statutory Corporations

Abstract

A spate of studies of West European and North American cities have charted and interpreted the remarkable and rapid transformation of public transport since the early 19th century. The question arises as to whether the attempts to superimpose metropolitan culture via public transport structures in African, Asian, and Central and South American cities were as spectacular and speedy. Attention, in tackling this question, focuses upon the transfer of public transport technological — organisational structures to Southeast Asia since the 1860s. Rather than accept the transitional process of competition through oligopoly to state-monopoly as given, a test is made of whether the basic prerequisites of these phases can be sustained in a Southeast Asian context, from an analysis of core technologies and the structure, conduct, and performance of individual firms. Past corporate growth paths of urban public transport in Southeast Asia can then be mapped out and future directions suggested.