UK bus companies to be promised coronavirus bailout this week - FT

(Reuters) - UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps will offer millions of pounds to bus companies this week in the latest bailout by the government since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Shapps, at an online meeting of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee last week, said he was drawing up a "sector-specific deal" to help bus companies, which have seen a 78 per cent fall in passenger numbers, the Financial Times reported, citing sources.

The bus compensation deal is expected to last for a period of six months, the newspaper reported.

(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)