The paper examines the basic reasons and feasible remedies for organisational weakness in India's public transport systems and the possible contribution of ownership, industry and management structure, leadership, social norms, and institutional incentives to alleviating the weaknesses. The arguments are illustrated with reference to the public rail and air services and help to understand why some public sector transport undertakings have performed better than others. The most effective changes are those that create incentives, broadly defined, for individuals to improve productivity.