What next for the UK's deserted public transport network?

Train and bus firms urgently need to find a route back to viability amid the Covid-19 crisis

Since the fall of Mussolini, few politicians can have declared quite so unselfconsciously as Grant Shapps that: I just want to make the trains run on time." But, as the transport secretary ruefully told MPs this week: I didn't expect to see that happen by having a fraction of people using it."

More than 98% of services ran punctually in April, underscoring the old rail industry joke that it would all work fine if it wasn't for the passengers. Yet the trains are only continuing to run due to an extraordinary level of subsidy after coronavirus forced most of the population to stay home.