If that's your experience about standing then I obviously accept it; except that, on the occasion I mentioned, the fireman had built up a full head of steam at booked departure time (there's a climb soon after leaving the station) and, during the time the train was waiting for the coach, he was unable to prevent the loco blowing off (it was the subject of a conversation). Releasing superheated steam self evidently wastes the considerable energy, created by burning coal, in it. My experience was on cabbing locos in stations (in B.R. days) and the fireman usually shovelled a lot of coal while he was waiting for the right away, though I accept it may have been more to build up the fire than just through standing.
Regarding waiting for a coach caught up in road traffic; on the occasion I mentioned along with every other passenger I also travelled by road (the railway has no easy rail network link) and I allowed for the possibility of delay and accordingly left earlier than a perfect world would require. Perhaps one right time departure, leaving the coach party behind, might encourage coach operators to realise that road delays should be factored in - in the case I outlined, there was another train booked about an hour after ours, so the delay would actually have only been 40 minutes. As well, because it is a single line with passing loops, our late departure delayed the next train in the opposite direction at the next loop, thus delaying that train's arrival at the terminal. On my train, it reduced the time available at the other end to explore the station, so the late coach had an effect on the enjoyment of people on more than one train. Perhaps, as I said in my earlier post, had the coach passengers displayed a sense of urgency and gratitude in joining the train (and passengers) waiting for them I would have felt more sympathy.
The loss of revenue is understandable but the consideration is a bit one-sided. As I set out in my post, on another line we waited at the outer terminal for yet another late coach; all the passengers already on board had already paid and the delay was risking missing the connection into the rail network at the other end with a not frequent service toward the end of the day. It seemed the calculation made was 'we've already got these mugs' money and we don't do refunds so they have to just accept the delay and lump it - we'll wait for the coach revenue, which we might not get if we leave them behind'. Although passengers pointed out the consequences of the delay the staff showed indifference which could be construed as contempt.
All the coach parties I've seen travel one-way; your line must have a lot of coach parties for their 'singles' sales to dwarf the revenue from day rover tickets - which most ordinary passengers buy.
