AFTER THE CRISIS

摘要

The transport industry likes and needs long term planning. It is usually a stable business where demand does not change drastically from one year to the next. The Covid-19 crisis has telescoped the planning process down to a few days. As I write this, I do not know what level of service we will be running after next week. Certainly interesting times. The government considers public transport essential, and the crisis has decimated the finances of all forms of transport. As a result, the bus industry has been supported by the national furloughing scheme and a sector specific bailout called CBSSG, which looks like it will last until the end of 2020. This has kept the network running at about 40% of mileage, but only carrying 10 to 15% of passengers, and has been achieved for an additional weekly subsidy of £14million. Fuel tax subsidies and concessionary fares have been paid at previous levels.