Josef wrote:To be fair, several bus companies cover a greater or lesser part of my route. I could, for example get an Arriva bus and walk the last mile or so (and pay more for the privilege). I've been known to do just that on nice days.
The rest are small-bus companies of the type where they clearly purchase their vehicles second-hand from Uzbekistan, have been told that removing shock absorbers is a good money-saving tip, and all the passengers are related.
They're also pretty expensive - a two mile journey is almost the same price as the full ten-mile one. Not that it matters, since (and I've watched) any time I've caught one I'm invariably the only passenger that pays.
Every time I get on one, I always wonder what the payment to the bus company is for those wee electronic card thingies.
In theory they get a fixed sum, as determined by the SPT, per passenger.
In practice there has long been allegations that the smaller companies work a fiddle with phantom passengers to maximise income, which is why you see lots of wee buses running empty, but apparently still able to make money.
Unfortunately deregulation didn't just remove control over routes but also removed a lot of rules over the quality and standards of the buses. The traffic commisoners are now becoming more active in that respect, once again which is why you have seen a couple of these companies taken off the road.
He advocated for the weak against the strong, the poor against the rich and labour against capital.
