(03 Jan 2021, 10:09 am)IRHardy wrote The problem is that two issues have come together which are incompatible:

1. Franchising:
The bus companies are businesses and what Transport for Greater Manchester are planning to do is to put all the bus services out to contract. The winner gets paid for operating that service, but if that is not the existing operator, then the existing operator does not get any compensation for that part of the business being taken away from them (i.e stolen). So the efforts that these companies have put into their businesses (which in most cases they indirectly purchased from GMPTE in good faith) means nothing and TfGM are saying is not worth anything. When the buses were nationalised to create the NBC in the 1960's, the operations were purchased from the existing owners, the owners received recompense for their business being taken away from them.
If I owned a business and the "government" decided that I could no longer carry on trading as they were going to take that business away from me, I would want compensating for the loss of income.

2. COVID-19:
The Government funding for bus services was because the Government imposed Social Distancing requirements which meant that more buses were needed to be run than would needed in "normal" times. When the SD requirements are removed, then the Government funding for bus companies will disappear and the bus companies will be back on their own, having to make enough money to keep the services running.