Comments by "" (@Bungle-UK) on "Andy Burnham is right: the trains are failing" video.

Hardly any bus operations make enough to cover costs so the only way you’re going to get more drivers is paying higher fares.
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Burnham et al will say nationalisation is the magic solution…..those of us who use Northern, LNER and Transpennine (all run by the government) will tell you it isn’t any better. Right now, Northern have over 100 cancellations listed plus 16 delayed services.
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@PlanetaryCitizen You’ve every right to grumble as the state is paying your fare so the bus company is benefiting from your patronage. However, pass remuneration is a key part of the problem because the money the bus company gets for each pass holder journey is pitifully low, meaning bus fares are often higher then needed to essentially subsidise the pass holders. The whole ‘free’ bus pass system hasn’t been funded properly since it was introduced under Blair. There seems to be a theme that everything the government sticks it’s nose into tends to get worse!
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@PlanetaryCitizen Yes, it was fully implemented in 2008. Originally you became eligible aged 60 but it is now linked to the age you become eligible for the state pension. I’ve never understood why buses are so badly neglected - nationally, about 12 times more journeys are made by bus than rail yet buses receive less that 5% of the subsidy trains receive. Poorer people make far more bus journeys and fewer rail journeys, so the taxpayer is essentially heavily subsidising railways for better off people. As ever, it’s all crazy!
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@ToCoSo You really need to do some research. Subsidy in the 5 years from 1988 rose from £1bn to £3bn. After an all time low in 1982, passenger numbers rose steadily after that aside from a temporary dip in the early 1990s as the recession affected commuter numbers.
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Every journey on the UK rail network this year will be subsidised by around £7.50….that’s about £11bn for a service the majority of the population never use. Just how high do people think the subsidy should be?
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In the UK, the decision was made to have the traveller pay the bill of the cost of the ticket with subsidy focussed on infrastructure. Even now, every journey is subsidised by around £7.50
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There’s no evidence to support this….rail is a very low profit business which is why so many private companies have walked away.
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What are you talking about? Almost no lines closed under Thatcher (the bulk of closures happened under a Labour government) and passenger numbers rose in the 1980s.
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@ToCoSo That’s also not true….rail subsidy rose significantly from the late 1980s into the 1990s as money was spent on new rolling stock and safety/infrastructure improvements. Sectorisation of BR in the 1980s is also widely regarded as having been a success.
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