(25 Feb 2014, 6:01 pm)andreos1 wrote Possibly restrict it to organisations not exceeding a certain amount of revenue or profit then, such as the smaller independents.

I cant think of any justification, why me, you or your next door neighbour should pay our taxes into a system, that ensures multi-million pound, multi-national companies can buy new vehicles (or in the case of the railways), refurbish/buy new trains.

If the system was nationalised/regionalised then yes, there is justification to keep BSOG, because ultimately, the money will be returned into local/central government coffers.

As it stands, that BSOG money isn't returned into local or national coffers at all, but supplements s new purchase or two, wifi or smartcard technology and the pot of German government, Mr Soutars offshore bank account (and the Airdrie Savings Bank) or some foreign investment fund on Wall Street - whilst passengers see poorer services.

We don't get Government handouts (austerity saw the end to that), yet the money is being thrown at multi-million pound organisations as though it is going out of fashion.

Yep, you could always argue the money is best spent elsewhere. Even if it went into the local government pot though, it then creates further arguments of who or what deserves that money more? Do we increase the spend on welfare, or do we choose to keep local libraries open?

BSOG was designed to keep fares down and to enable operators to run services that may not otherwise be profitable. Do we actually have any proof that this is working? Fares have risen well above the rate of inflation for so long now, and because of commercial confidentiality, we'll never know how profitable service A B or C is.