State Intervention in Urban Passenger Transportation: The Transport Corporation of Buenos Aires, 1939-1962

Making a hybrid out of a crisis: historical contingency and the institutional logics of London’s public transport monopoly

“…This 'hybrid' mix of state and market principles, practices and symbols occurred in other major cities. This outcome had close parallels to the Corporacion de Transportes de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires in Argentina (Heras, 1994), as well as some commonalities with the French Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (Garbutt, 1997) and the New York City Transit Authority (Cudahy, 1995). Domestically, the Board also had some resemblances to the contemporaneous British Broadcasting Corporation and the Central Electricity Board in the UK (Millward & Singleton, 1995).…”

“…Just as importantly, we argue this period also covers the major defining moment in the process of unifying London Transport, the so called 'pirate bus' crisis in 1924. In common with some other jurisdictions, this arose from the unregulated proliferation of private buses which caused danger, congestion, a fall in revenues and transport workers' wages and a strike (Barker & Robbins, 1976;Cudahy, 1995;Heras, 1994;Croome & Jackson, 1993;Mom, 1995). We propose that the London 'pirate buses' were especially influential because they exposed both a market failure and a democratic deficit simultaneously.…”

Foreign Business-Host Government Relations: The Anglo Argentine Tramways Co. Ltd. of Buenos Aires, 1930–1966

“…Namely, for all their sympathy with the company's plight, until late 1933 the Conservative lord mayors of the city could not overcome the power of opposition politicians, the local legislative branch that granted and supervised concessions of public utility services. 1 ' Given the prospects of financial collapse and the lack of response of the Buenos Aires authorities, the board pursued two additional options. Firstly, they sought British government support to obtain a rates increase and conclusive measures to curb unregulated motor transport competition in Buenos Aires.…”

“…Additionally, in 1933 both governments overhauled Anglo-Argentine relations by means of a bilateral pact which mainly addressed the pending problems of more significant British commercial and financial vested interests in Argentina. 1 In other words, clearly as of late 1933 the Anglo had a reasonable working relationship with the British and Argentine governments. Yet, local political decision-making was quite independent and British official policy towards Argentina did not cater to the Anglo's sectoral concerns.…”

“…Third, since the Anglo belonged to SOFINA, a transnational holding company with worldwide investments in public transportation and electric power stations, our case study shows the limitations of SOFINA's political power in Britain and Argentina. 1…”