TRANSIT BUS MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.

A review of transit bus maintenance shows that, as widely suspected, there are serious problems. The roots of these problems are shown to be largely institutional. The paper points out that solutions to parts of the problem along established disciplinary lines alone will not succeed to improve the effectiveness of transit bus maintenance. Instead, a total system approach is advocated. Elements of such an approach are outlined. The approach calls for treating the problem simultaneously from the top down and from the bottom up.