State taking back buses
China Daily | Updated: 2009-03-31 07:43
The Shanghai Public Transport Company, the operator of the city's bus system, became a trailblazer when it privatized in 1996.
The reform was hailed as a successful bid to introduce a market-based replacement for the old egalitarian "big rice bowl" transport system, which invariably produced poor service and mounting deficits.
In a matter of a few years, the company had split into more than 40 separate enterprises, owned mostly by private businessmen or shareholders.
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