Labour supporters hold up ‘Saved by Sadiq’ posters – six months after TfL’s proposals to cut bus routes

• GREAT to read that Transport for London is allowing the 31 bus route to continue, it is the only direct connection from Swiss Cottage to Camden, (Key routes saved from buses cuts, November 24).

While there is a thought that part of the panic was a deliberate ploy by TfL to draw attention to the difficulties Conservative cuts are causing, as the body struggles to deal with the Covid-related travel issues of the last couple of years, the massive loss in revenue over the period must have some consequences that have to be addressed.

But one aspect of the story was missing from your reports. I discovered that Abellio, the company running the 24 bus route and others here in the United Kingdom and Germany, is a Dutch public transport company wholly owned by their national railway company Nederlandse Spoorwegen. So any profits earned disappear and help to subsidise train fares in Holland!

I was already aware that many other London buses are run by a group called RATP, or Rapid Area Transport de Paris, the French equivalent of London Transport (as was). So, again, any profits earned go to help lower Parisian bus fares.

Knowing this – and the fact that this applies to all of the recently privatised services, including gas, electricity and water – surely everyone can see it was plain stupid to let this happen.

Just one last fact: Thames Water is mostly owned by Canadian pension funds, and even a Chinese state body has a 10 per cent stake in the company.

There are consequences of this ownership change. Bus drivers, train staff and others are striking because of poor pay and conditions, sewage is dumped on beaches, fat-burgers block our drains, and energy prices soar out of sight.

And if there are any profits we never see them. Can somebody else get a bit angry about the situation? Maybe Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer could at least tell people if he thinks it is wrong? Or perhaps he thinks all is fine. He certainly says nothing about the issues.

DAVID REED
Eton Avenue, NW3