The Hood,
I haven't tried much beyond the goods and cold goods. Cold goods fine. The books were a slight loss. IMHO, it shouldn't be hard to break even without the speed bonus.
Buses too have been harder to turn a profit than I am used to. I did a lot of experimentation, even to having 100% load stops, and short runs on twisty streets might still lose money. In the end I decided to worry less and make buses wait at certain stops for 1%-20% load (to reduce bunching) with the theory that if passengers circulate in-town effectively they'll keep the railways fed. When I let the bus lines run more at a loss, overall profits were fine.
I built a tram network in one city and that thing makes money hand-over-fist. Well, operations-wise. The per-mile cost drops substantially and the maintenance costs go up. Is there a report somewhere that breaks out maintenance costs by, say, track types, signals, stations?
Here's the latest save file . . . my current project is auditing station coverage in the towns to improve coverage and bus service.
(I may have to grab your latest ships and see about floating sheep to the slaughterhouse.

NOTE: Save file is too big to post to forum, so I posted it here:
http://dannyman.toldme.com/scratch/Caernarvon.sveCheers,
-danny