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That is why I said 'in the main' - of course some do, but I should think a majority (like the rest of the population) don't.

It is just a statement of fact - I understand why it is. However, it does not help if you are not on the receiving end of the product, for whatever the reason. It was not the case 50+ years ago.

No doubt there is a chunk, ever increasing I expect. But I certainly remember Conductors - I worked as one too. However, any comparison to those days with the present is pretty meaningless because so much else has changed on the interim. The buses in those days were slower, in acceleration...

If you try to bankrupt the companies with an under reimbursed £2 fare scheme they definitely won't be financially sound to be a franchisee! Blackmailing companies into participating in loss making activities doesn't usually end well either.

But you mentioned that making this a Statutory Duty would be a way of providing evening and Sunday services without extra funding? How would this work then? If the Local Authority had this Statutory Duty (however 'adequate' is defined, presuming this is more service than is currently...

I don't think they do hate their job - you are misreading the situation. Get ground down to go along with (at least some of) the flow. 1784891966 Not sure how you come up with that conclusion? A statutory duty on whom? If the bus company, or a Local Authority funding a bus service, cannot...

Quite, but unfortunately the constraints and harsh realities of the day (which includes their interaction with their staff, their shareholders, the Government, Local Authorities and other members of the non riding public) grind them down. No criticism of them intended. At least there is an...

My view is that it depends what is 'long distance', what is the percentage of long distance passengers and what is the actual numbers of intermediate passengers boarding and alighting. 'Horses for courses' as routes will have different characteristics.

Well they are, aren't they? I think the problem is that the bus companies are, in the main, being managed, administered, operated and maintained by people who simply do not use the product and have no wish to. This includes drivers, who drive the product but actually use private transport for...

My view is that the quality of bus (within reason) is not a major issue against bus use. People may cite this reason, but they are masking the main real reasons (which is undoubtedly the door to door, departure time and journey time convenience and personal space of private transport). Yes...

You are right, but has that tempted people out of their cars....? I don't think so. 2+1 seating is an economic nonsense. In off peak times people generally have two seats to themselves, and as you say, people don't like standing, or having their children standing, in buses at peak (usually...

Serious consideration and actually going down that road compulsorily are two different things - investment in the UK will very quickly dry up with such economic interventions......

Did Stagecoach and Arriva see large increases in patronage with Gold and Sapphire? I don't think so. I think other disadvantages of bus travel vs. private car travel outweighs any slight gains of a better appointed bus. My observation is that because weekly and monthly tickets have not...

I think that this falls at the first hurdle 'PROVIDED that the subsidy offered to bus operators is sufficient'. I believe the reimbursement is linked to historical use data and an average applied. It also doesn't pay so much for generated travel - the bus company is expected to be glad to...

Can you give some examples of these routes in Scotland, and what their English equivalents are? I think the Scottish ones have, by and large, long non-stop sections, and/or motorway sections, and/or are very long routes compared to England with lots of long distance traffic on them?

However, in my County of residence, interestingly there was a marked decline in use when the £2 fare went to £3....

Not all taxpayers are farepayers, because a considerable proportion of them will never travel in a bus. Of course, each £1 of tax collected from taxpayers to pay for the subsidy, if not collected would also likely have been spent somewhere else by the taxpayer.

Judging by this, I am guessing that you are not the demographic that Buses are ever going to appeal to, so it is really not worth spending hundreds of millions on, just to be presented with another set of reasons why you won't use Buses. Just got to accept that these people (in their millions...

I think that some distinction has to be drawn between Transport and 'most businesses'. The product cannot be stored. It has to be consumed as it is produced, otherwise it is lost. The huge demand is not consistently spread across the day/week/year. It may well be that the additional revenue...

But those things are going to cost a fortune to deal with and, if we start now (which we can't unless buses become the no. 1 priority over health, social care and everything else), will take 20 or more years to come to any kind of fruition. And still, outside of the major urban areas, will...