This paper addresses the link between the degree of unreliability of bus services and the level of optimal bus subsidy. With unreliability influencing user cost, and user cost being a key determinant of optimal bus subsidy, it follows that there is a link between service unreliability and...

We show that optimal public transport subsidy is sensitive to the use of alternative user cost models, and that a model based on cost minimisation principles may lead to an improvement in subsidy estimates. For the case of homogeneous consumers and non-peaked demand, the cost minimisation user...