"Paul Corfield" wrote:

While I am sure that you could notionally allocate a level of revenue to
a route and then set it against the tendered cost of operation I am not
sure what it would tell you.

Is one of the problems here that TfL wish to run most routes for 19 hours a
day, usually at a (say) 15 minute frequency until end of service?

Using the example of our IKEA bus, this might generate a notional profit if
operated from 8am to 7pm Mon-Sat, and 10 am to 4pm on Sunday. But then going
on to run a bus every fifteen minutes from 7pm until midnight, largely
carrying fresh air, tips it back to a loss. I appreciate this is overly
simplistic, as each route has multiple traffic objectives, but if TfL are
looking for cost cuts, I propose that the frequency of some non-core routes
after the evening peak would be a good place to start.

I believe, as a youth*, the 248 used to convey friends and I from Upminster
to Romford at a circa 30 minute evening frequency. I don't think anyone
found this especially constricting. I see the 248 is now, sure enough, every
15 minutes until after midnight.

Despite protestations (elsewhere in this
thread) that London bus fares are high all the evidence points to the
opposite.

Two weeks ago I used a commercial service to travel approximately eight
miles in East Sussex, off peak. £4.00 single. On a fairly full bus, I was
the only fare paying passenger. Anyone who says London bus fares are high
has clearly never travelled outside London or the less developed world.

Chris
* In the days when the 248 was run (badly) under tender by a Nottingham
outfit.