(12 Sep 2021, 8:43 am)tcts24 wrote Asda has no responsibility to feed starving families. Which is where food banks and the relevant authorities step in. Stagecoach has no responibility to provide a bus to get me Stockton to Ludworth if I decided to go for a few drinks. In both cases and in every commercial organisation the two responsibilities are to provide a profit for its owners and stay within regulations. If any further non profitable service is required it's up to the relevant social authorities to ensure it's provided, usually at a cost to the public in one way or another. That's simply the way capitalim works.
It's worth pointing out that the UK is quite unique in the developed world in having a privatised, de-regulated bus system. Even the USA recognise that buses are ran as a loss-making public service to allow citizens to engage with the economy. That's also Capitalism.
There's a common argument that buses must make money or they shouldn't run. Buses do not make money. Never have & never will. In the UK we provide zero-rate tax on bus fares, Bus Service Operators Grant, (to become Bus Recovery Fund), Green Bus Fund (and it's evolvement into new funds) direct support, Concessionary Fares & more. Vast sums of public money keep buses on the road every day, the difference in the UK is that we've signed off all control of when & where buses run to the private sector.
Many will point to the Brighton & Hove, Bristol & Harrogate to how the private sector is the best way to run a bus service with local authority support. They can be great, but for every Brighton there's a Hartlepool, a Stoke-on-Trent, a Stafford.....a disinterested local authority and a skeleton private service.