| Comment | >I don't imagine many people regularly pay for day tickets with two different Glasgow bus operators
Yeah that's was my point. Integration of multiple operators rather than using one is spreading the cost of a ticket across multiple companies and reducing the capital each company is receiving. It makes more sense for these companies to merge.
Comparing like for like a single in glagsow is £2.50 while a single in Edinburgh is £1.70. I get your point about population density but therein lies the problem. The economics of running these services under a free market system mean that services which are essential yet less profitable are not a priority. If we had integrated, cheap, reliable services these routes would actually be serviceable under private operation. It's a catch 22 and private companies will never take the financial hit of reducing their costs to entice people back.
Ultimately we spend so much subsidising concessionary travel that the excess moeny we'd spend nationalising these services would soften the offset the costs significantly. |
|---|