Franchise funding

[Rodney259]

RE: Franchise funding

(10/07/2025 12:21)knutstransport Wrote:  Greater Manchester has a £2 single fare cap, which as part of Bee Network, got extended to include short journeys involving a change of bus. As there's central government funding provided towards the fare caps (nationally) I imagine a significant chunk of funding comes from that, and the Bee Network introduction had little direct impact on that level.


Do you have more context for that? Apart from Metroline, all the franchise holders are British and had operations in Greater Manchester prior to franchising. Arriva (who have a foreign parent) lost out. So are you saying Metroline make more profit off GM services, than Arriva did?

Go Ahead is 51% by Kinetic of Australia and 49% by Globalvia of Spain, Stagecoach is owned by the German firm DWS Infrastructure and, as you say, Metroline's parent is from Singapore. Only First and National Express are UK owned. Mind you, the car industry, mos breweries, Costa, Boots and many other 'British' companies are foreign owned also!