(01 Apr 2020, 3:20 pm)mb134 wrote And what fares would those be?
If you take the big 3 in the North East, they're largely all running a Sunday service with a few peak extras. There are fewer passengers than you'd find even on a Sunday, so you've got reduced income all 7 days of the week.
Ultimately wages still need paid, fuel still needs used and maintenance still needs carried out.
Shops, restaurants etc currently have a government paid workforce, little to no maintenance cost and so aren't in as bad of a position. Bus operators have all the usual costs, albeit on a slightly reduced scale (and with furloughed workers), so most will run into financial difficulty.
Who cares about GoAhead, Arriva and Stagecoach with First and Transdev. These are large companies who earn millions of pounds a year. If you don't bother to have plans in place to get through times like this then it's your problem and any bailouts should come with a cost and that is the government taking ownership of them.
Don't have sympathy for them they've been milking money for years and providing very little in return. David Brown the CEO of GoAhead just for the record takes £1.269m a year. This isn't a dig at Dan, Martin or anyone who works on the ground but it's just the truth.
The companies who need the real help are the small companies, your Henry Cooper, James Cooper, Dales and District, Weardale etc. companies which are family owned and will be the real casualties of this without any coach work at all and usually the ones who pick up the undesirable work while the big 5 rake in all the profitable routes / desirable contracts.