The government should help subsidise public transport but in reality they dont. I spent 23 years in the public transport industry on the road and in the head office, the government will not subsidise public transport outside London, the only concession they give is less VAT on fuel and they are starting to remove that concession from early next year.
Local authorities tender contracts out for unprofitable rural routes and evening and Sunday services in cities but these are now being cut back drastically, the company I worked for is estimating a 30 to 40% drop in tenders in the next few months ( lost me my job in pre emptive cut backs) but the government is not helping the travelling public one iota by investing in the infrastructure for bus use or helping companies reduce fares, in fact its quite the opposite.
Since deregulation in 1986 the bus companies have been privately owned and now have to pay dividends to share holders which squeezes things even tighter much the same as the rail companies.
When deregulation was implemented it was politicians who got in first and started up companies to buy out smaller companies, one was Margaret Thatcher through her husband Dennis Thatcher, he chaired an investment company called Endless Holdings that became British Bus and made millions buying small companies and selling them on.
The adverts you see telling you to take public transport are mostly from local authorities or the government and are hypocritical as it feeds their tax bin.