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I hold some of these and also of Rotala. The last 18 months have decimated both sp's. The problem is that the government went out of its way to discourage the use of public transport. It did give financial support however. It will take a long time for the passenger numbers to recover. Those I have spoken to have to use public transport. For whatever reason they have no choice. The new strategy in Manchester is still to be agreed and is some way off. My own experience is of more rural routes and they are struggling. I do not intend to sell any shares in either but sadly I have now accepted these are a long term hold. Not enforcing the wearing of masks is scaring a lot of the current passengers and some of the older drivers I have spoken to are thinking of calling it a day. That would to be a serious situation. I hope though at some stage the powers that be realise their mistakes. Once more it is ask the passengers what they want then tell them what they get.
The share is now only a penny above what it was on the 1st Feb when the country was in a mess - implying that the share is in a worse state now than it was then is just nonsense - I have a large holding here accumulated from the mid 70's but sold around 20pct of that at 95p - I will add to my holding if this falls much further - gla and dyor etc
spindock. I am a SGC driver in a SE London suburb. My passenger numbers are back to pre-covered very busy. As far as I know our driver assault screens will still have the speaking holes covered, I guess in the country they don't have those. 90% of our drivers don't wear face mask in the garage as they are supposed to and i have now joined them after having both jabs and it not being compulsory come Monday so we don't seem to be so concerned here about the virus. It will be interesting with the passenger numbers come Monday but I think nothing will change. People who wore masks before they were compulsory will continue to wear them and everyone else wont. The SP has plummeted over the past 2 weeks for no apparent reason and like yourself I have no intention of selling anytime soon, in fact my garage along with many others near me have started the ground work for the new electric buses we have some coming very soon to our garage and I can see in the near future the government discouraging the use of cars by more so called green taxes on them and encouraging the use of public transport.
I'm mixed on the impact of mask
In part i think mask make people feel safe but on the other hand continuing to wear masks also means the "scare factor" remains
If covid is to become like the flu then we need to ditch masks in total
My view is that the gov should offer N95 masks to all so you are no longer tied to whether others wear theirs
Individual choice
But long term we need to drop masks or risk the scare factor forever on public transport but i do understand for some it is still a safety blanket
CHRI55 herd immunity is arguably already here...It's worth remembering that around 90% of the UK now has coronavirus antibodies, with that predicted to be above 95% by the end of July - we know the vaccine/infection doesn't provide 100% protection against severe disease but even against the delta variant protection is high...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-uk-antibodies-herd-immunity-b1879643.html
Dan, the restrictions last winter led to record low numbers of flu as a side effect. The ideal scenario is a new way of life where we introduce masks during the winter to protect the vulnerable against both flu and covid. Eventually that should be possible without it reinforcing fear in the minds of the average person.
We also need to understand relative risk. Every death is sad but knowing that during a bad flu season as many as 500 people die a day (over the three month winter period) does help put things in context.
I think it was just bombastic Boris wanting a more symbolic end of restrictions 'freedom day' and a narrative of 'we've kicked the pandemic into touch' whereas the scientists wanted restrictions to stay in place.
In the end it's a sort of compromise.
Wrong again Chris, I'd have complained.