Subsidy for TfL bus services is £600m a year!

[knutstransport]

Subsidy for TfL bus services is £600m a year!

Leon Daniels (Managing Director, Surface Transport, TfL) Wrote:the bus network in London runs at a deficit currently of about £600 million a year. That is the difference
between the revenue received and the cost of the operation. The reason for that deficit is that successive
Mayors have had as a matter of policy to have a comprehensive bus service running across the network across
Greater London to and from places just over the boundary, where everybody should be within 400 metres of
their nearest bus stop, to run that service all day - and, if possible, all night where there is demand - and to do
so at a cheap fare. Successive Mayors have in one form or another had this as a policy because they believe
that this provides mobility for all members of society, people going to and from work, going to and from school
and further education and people looking for work. I am reminded that more than half the passengers on our
night bus network are travelling to or from work. The price of that, of course, is that a combination of
affordable fares and a comprehensive service means that it runs at a deficit.

https://www.london.gov.uk/moderngov/docu...mi.pdf?T=9

In prospective the budget for all the 'Northern Hub' rail improvements including electrification is £600m and that's being spent over a few years, not all in one year.