In message , at 10:44:16 on Thu, 20 Sep 2012,
Alex Potter remarked:
It's often more of a case of how big the subsidy is. Not unusual for
some overseas Public Transport operations to run on the basis of one
third fare box, two thirds subsidy.

TFL costs about twice the farebox revenue to run, iirc (£5.5bn operating
costs plus £2bn capital projects) versus £3.5bn. So not exactly
"profitable".

Thanks, Roland. I was under the impression that the bus services in
London were operated by companies that were in it for profit.

The bus operations are contracted out, and the companies make a small
profit, in the same sense that the bus drivers aren't working for
nothing either. It's unclear whether contracting them out saves or costs
money (compared to TFL owning and running the buses itself) but it's
pretty finely balanced I reckon.
--
Roland Perry