https://www.theguardian.com/business/202...ger-levels

First Group posts £300m loss for the year ending March, ie before coronavirus hits. Uncertainty over its ability to keep operating as a going concern in the short to medium term and they plan to reduce their operate mileage by up to 30% after government support for bus services ends next year. Unclear as to whether this will be an average across all of their operations or pulling out of entire regions.

Passengers set to loose out through a mix of long term miss-management of First coming home to roost and no clear bus policy from government.

Who’s going to fill in the gaps of First’s impending retrenchment? If they cut deep in the Potteries area I dread to think how the network could recover as the council provides zero bus provision, you’d be lucky around there to have an accurate timetable at the stop, if it has a service at all. Fat chance of a supported bus service replacement, you’d be lucky to have a community charity minibus if the pensioners can do enough sad-facing in the local paper.

Compare this to a PTE area like Manchester. TfGM aren’t perfect but they have an established framework for assessing changes to the commercial network and any response needed by the subsidised network:

https://democracy.greatermanchester-ca.g...rt%20A.pdf

This document also confirms the Greater Manchester bus subsidy budget for the general network, i.e. just filling in the gaps left by commercial operators, is £19m, which seems much worse value than the fully franchised London system at about £6 million.

We can split hairs over the build quality of a Mellor over an E200 but it truly is that it nothing if the private sector is left entirely to run the network.