Brian Souter’s busman’s holiday to Spain could be about to pay off. Stagecoach’s chief executive has found common cause with bus-lovers in the Cosmen family to break up National Express.

The Cosmen-CVC consortium’s indicative final offer of 500p may not be as generous as the bidders make out, but it is a darned sight better than previous approaches, which were hung around with more conditions than a National Express Advance Single to Glasgow.