That's a very good point, one I'd not thought of but tbh Stagecoach are that sort of company too so I wouldn't be suprised to see them giving it a good go and being sucessful. I'm not First bashing or singing the praises of Stagecoach in any way here though, it's just my personal opinions!
Brian Souter has donated an awful lot of money to the SNP, so you never know. Then again, Stagecoach are an awful company that literally run their competitors off the road. The only bus company that's behaved shadier is McGills.
One thing National Express did a lot better than First is
cleaning the trains properly. I don't know if First have cut the amount of time allocated to clean a single train, but you can see the filth collecting in the corners where they don't bother to clean. National Express also used that lovely mango-scented cleaning fluid that made the Junipers quite pleasant at 7AM. That disappeared after the franchise changed hands.
Oh, and for the Little Englanders, Scotland could survive independently. They always mention the money that Scotland gets from the London government. But Scotland brings in a lot of money to London through taxes and duties on whisky. We also bring in a lot of money through tourism. Scotland generates a lot of energy, and there's a lot of money going in to develop more. We have oil, wind farms, nuclear stations and coastal power generators.