Pressure for Rural Subsidies
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WHEN local authority representatives V, discussed rural transport at the Ministry of Transport on Friday, all endorsed the need for a measure of financial assistance to enable bus operators to maintain the level of rural services. Members of local authority associations had been invited to meet Lord Lindgren, Parliamentary Secretary, to discuss the results of the local rural bus inquiries and experiments which were the subject of a report published by the Minister in August. Several of the experiments have been described in. detail in this journal.
Lord Lindgren said that rural bus finances were part of the general problems facing the bus industry—they were in difficulties in both town and country, and there had been some taxation relief.
Some of the Associations thought there was also a case for selective subsidy for services to meet needs which were smaller than could be catered for by the bus in a normal way.
The meeting discussed ideas for areas where there was not sufficient demand to justify bus operation—such as letting school buses carry fare-paying adults and developing voluntary car pools for special needs. They also looked at the possibility of improving liaison between bus operators and local authorities.
Lord Lindgren will shortly be having a similar meeting with bus operators' associations.