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>So as long as the fares that are actually paid are sufficient to operate the train and pay wages to the employees That would be a rare exception to the rule.
by jdietrich 3y ago
>So as long as the fares that are actually paid are sufficient to operate the train and pay wages to the employees
That would be a rare exception to the rule. Almost all public transport systems run at a loss and rely on public subsidy; revenues lost through fare evasion increase the burden on the taxpayer.
- margalabargala 3y agoTfL claims they have an operating surplus. https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2023/march/annual-budget-for-2023-24-shows-tfl-set-to-deliver-operating-surplus https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2023/march/...
- tialaramex 3y agoThey do. But their income includes revenue from taxation. Suppose you own a London business. You pay taxes to the local government. In London, these taxes include money for TfL. After all, you chose to put the business in London, a city with a large public transport network, if you didn't like that you could have put your business in, say, Slough, and avoided this cost. Passenger revenue is TfL's largest source of income by some distance, but it's nowhere close to enough to pay for the entire network, let alone the necessary capital investments to grow and change with the city. And of course if prices went up, ridership would fall, and transport would be diverted to the over-stretched and polluting private transport options which the city does not want.