The impact of Covid-19 will be prolonged, not helped by the inability of all societies to evaluate risk without reliable statistics. My optimism that by now the future would be clearer was misplaced.
As I wrote in my July column, the bus industry has risen to the challenge. It reduced services in March, ran essential services through the lockdown and ramped up to 90% of mileage through to August, with more mileage added for the return to school in September.
The government has been cautious in opening up the economy and the calls to minimise the use of public transport have been heeded; passenger numbers hover on average at about 40% of pre-Covid level, and hopefully will increase considerably when the schools return in September and continue to increase.
