Miners strike cost SBG £1.5m and passengers
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THE MINERS' strike cost the Scottish Bus Group £1.5rn last year according to its parent Scottish Transport Group's annual report published this week.
Nevertheless, SBG — which also runs ferries and lorries — made a pre-tax
profit of -,.10.4m, a fall of only 000,000 compared to 1983.
SBG has now repaid the £20m commencing capital debt which dates from its formation in 1969.
The miners' strike cost SBG revenue from its
contracts work and had a knock-on effect on its stage carriage business. Total passenger traffic fell from 318.9m to 311.5m.
Local authorities paid it £7.1m in revenue support last year, up from i5.1rn in the previous year, but this still represents only 5.3 per cent of its operating costs.
And SBG chairman Bill Stevenson was especially proud that bus operating costs rose only by 2.9 per cent to £1.14 per mile — 5p less than the figure for National Bus.