How a harbour town keeps its night bus

At 12:40 on a Thursday, the last proper train has left, the bars are emptying and the rain is coming sideways off the water. At the stop outside the old customs house, thirty people wait for Route 9.

The route loses money. Council accounts show each night trip costs about three times its fare income, and every budget round someone proposes to shorten it. Each time, the same people appear at the meeting: nurses, kitchen staff, cleaners, a baker who starts at three.

Who actually rides

A passenger survey carried out over two weeks found that more than half of night riders were heading to or from work, not leisure. Many had no other safe option. Taxis for the same trip cost between nine and fourteen euros.

The town has decided, for now, to keep the bus and fund it from parking fines. It is an unglamorous fix, but it tells a story many cities could learn from: a service does not have to profit to be the reason a place functions at night.