On 19 Oct 2004, littilesthobo wrote:

i checked out the TFL price schemes and more or less, Tube is twice as
expensive. are the running costs of a bus service really that much
cheaper than running the Tube? (the capital cost of building the
underground was forked out 50+ years ago) or is it just that people are
willing to pay more for the convenience of no wait travel? just curious.
thanks.

AIUI and IIRC, London Buses gets a bigger subsidy than London Underground
- in fact, ISTR that (perhaps until recently) LU got zero operating
subsidy from TfL, whereas LB got quite a bit. This might have been because
LU got its subsidy through some other route, though, or i might just be
completely wrong - YMMV. If it is true, it would be, IMHO, because, as
Dave said, the tube is overloaded and the buses aren't, so it makes sense
to lower the fares on the buses to get people onto them instead [1].

HTH.

tom

[1] Hang on a minute, no it doesn't - everyone knows that getting modal
shift from rail to bus is like getting blood out of a stone; wouldn't it
be better to give the money to LU to improve services?

--
Tech - No Babble