I can assure Mark Beachey (Oxford Mail, October 4) that the football buses to the Kassam Stadium in Oxford did make a sizeable loss.

Why else would we have stopped them? I'm certainly not a masochist and we don't enjoy upsetting loyal passengers.

It is a strange concept but a full bus, train or plane can lose money.

Every Saturday, we had to provide about six buses and drivers for the soccer specials. The wages alone, without the running costs of the vehicles and any contribution to our overheads, exceeded the fares taken.

A significant number of the passengers were travelling on some form of concessionary ticket, so the overall revenue was not high, despite the buses seeming to be full.

The drivers 'booked on' on an average Saturday at about 12.30pm and didn't 'book off' until about 6pm, all at overtime rates.

I'll leave you to work the sums. Add in all the other hidden costs and the result was a significant loss.

As to the X3, yes, some journeys are lightly loaded in one direction.

It's a fact of life -- more people travel into Oxford than Abingdon in the morning and so that bus has to run back to Abingdon to load again.

The opposite happens in the evening. Those X3 buses, however, are busy all the time -- they don't do one journey, then park on a stadium car park for four hours.

We have held meetings with the Oxford United supporters' group and been frank and honest about our costs. We have nothing to hide. Nigel Eggleton, Commercial Director, Oxford Bus Company