Hereward the Wake wrote
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Absolutley stupid. I believe many inter-city services and evening/weekend are unprofitable. A number of cities and large towns would lose all rail services. Minibuses are a poor substitute for trains over quite long distances.
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I was suggesting minibuses to replace short routes really. As for intercity routes being unprofitable, I was unaware of that but if so why are they there?
You need to be clear about what you want from the rail network, if it is enviromental benefit then you cannot have sparsley used trains. If you seek to provide a universal service then that will require a massive increase in public spending as on the continent. Since the current network already leaves many areas uncovered why should some people have a special service subsidised by those without access to it?.
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The loss making services are supported by subsidies, not the profitable routes.
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My understanding is that the companies recieve a subsidy on the understanding that they must keep up certain services, the franchise depends on this and they must keep those services up even if the subsidy does not cover them.