funding to break even or part funding? Because ive been paying through the nose for the service.
EMAs effectively cover all remaining costs of running a service after passenger income is taken into account.
During the height of lockdown when it was for essential travel / key workers only there were only a handful of passengers on each train - Classic Berths were <£100 if I recall correctly and NHS staff travelled free. So you'd be looking at c.£1k passenger income on some services and hence Transport Scotland (TS) near enough funding the entire cost of running the trains.
Now loadings are up with the more relaxed restrictions and opening of tourism in Scotland, passenger revenues are up and the amount TS have to pay to fund the service and ensure it is break even (or thereabouts is less).
Sleeper tickets are not cheap, especially when trains are getting full as they are now and you book late(r) in the day. Only the higher priced bands will then be available.
However, it's worth remembering that in 'normal' times, both the CS accounts and ORR data show that passenger income covers <40% of running the service. Sleeper trains are just inherently expensive to run (lots of costs for fewer passengers and only one run per day/night for each train).
Personally, I think only paying 40% of what something actually costs is pretty decent value.