BILL BRADSHAW was for 30 years a career railwayman during which time he held three senior executive positions as Director of Operations, Director of the Policy Unit and General Manager of the Western Region. Following a back injury he left British Rail and became Chairman of Ulsterbus, Professor of Transport Management of Salford University and has been a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Wolfson College Oxford since 1986. During the last Parliament he was Specialist Adviser to the Transport Select Committee of the House of Commons. HELEN LAWTON SMITH has been a Research Fellow in the Centre for Local Economic Development, Coventry University since 1995. She is also Director of Science Policy Studies of the Regulatory Policy Research Centre at Hertford College, Oxford University. Her research interests include scientific labour markets in transition and regional innovation infrastructures.