Golden Buses Part 2

A question about bus subsidy from the September session:

Roger Evans: What percentage of the overall cost of running London's buses does the fare income provide?

Ken Livingstone: In 2005/06, fares income (including reimbursement for concessionary travel) covered approximately 62% of the cost of the London bus network.

But Ken, surely reimbursement for concessionary travel is part of the subsidy, after all, it is recovered from the public authorities involved, and hence from council tax or public grant....

In 1999 the, admittedly less attractive, bus service was breaking even on fares. We don't want to go back to that, but there must be a less costly alternative.