Saturday, June 21, 2008

Taken for a ride

Shares in the Go-Ahead bus company surged 15% this week on the back of an optimistic trading statement. Shares in other bus companies also rose

Part of this is down to the increase in travel by older people of course. For the first time I read that local authorities reimburse the companies “a percentage of the full adult single fare

I wonder how this figure is negotiated. Does the Treasury lay down a standard national discount, or is it left to individual councils?

Paying the full adult single fare is by far the most expensive way of travelling by bus. Usually a wide range of discounts-for-bulk (& prepayment) are available

I fear that, without hard bargaining to get better than the best rate available to ordinary adult members of the public, we are all, as taxpayers, being taken for a different kind of ride