Counsel Alleges South Wales
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Operators Seek High Profits
IOUNSEL representing 31 local authorities appealing against fares Teases in South Wales said at an miry at Cardiff on Monday that the npanies involved had an annual fame of £6m. and that, by increases tilted early this year, were securing extra £450,000.
Forty-four authorities and a private nmittee, representing the travelling blic, were appealing against a :ision of the South Wales Licensing ithority, who had granted fares Teases to six companies. The hearing s before Mr. W. Tudor Davies.
Fhe operators involved . were the stern Welsh Omnibus Co., Ltd., Red d White Services, Ltd., J. James and n, Ltd, the South Wales Transport Ltd., United Welsh Services, Ltd., d the Rhondda Transport Co., Ltd. Mr. M. Evans, for the appellants, said tt a system introduced early in the tr fixed fares on a mileage basis. The :al authorities did not object to this item in principle, but to the amount the increased revenue the companies ight to obtain.
The increases were not uniform, he d. Some services had to bear rises of -100 per, cent., and on some there re reductions. All the extra revenue s to increase the companies' profits. When the hearing was resumed on Tuesday, Mr. Evans suggested that one authority which ran buses had been obliged to advance fares against their wish.
Dealing with appeals relating to It routes operated by Western Welsh Omnibus in common with Rhondda Transport, he said that the effect of the Authority's decision was to eliminate competition: "The South Wales Licensing Authority has consistently approved what is called a ' coming into line' policy. When one company puts up its fares, then the Authority will always grant to any other company on that route a similar level of fares. The Licensing Authority quite recently more or less insisted that one local authority should put up its fares to the level of the Rhondda companies although the local authority did not want to do so."
Companies had been granted increases on routes on which they were already making a profit. Western Welsh, by being allowed to put their rates on a par (kith those of the Rhondda company, had got an extra £29,000 a year over routes where they were already showing a profit. " We say the fares should be based on the running costs of the most efficient operator," he said.