is. Off Fuel : Fares to Come Down
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wurvi the removal, on Tuesday. of the emergency ls: a gallon increase in the fuel tax, coach and bus operators who, under the Hydrocarbon Oil Duties (Temporary Increase) Act, raised their fares, have to restore them to the previous level within a fortnight. This period may be extended " for
sPecial reasons " by the Traffic Commissioners, The surcharge of 10 per cent, recommended by the Road Haulage Association to cover the extra Is. a gallon will he reviewed by the national rates committee next Wednesday. Other advances in costs which have taken place recently will then be taken into account.
The fall in the fuel tax will save the British Transport Commission about I:51m. a year.
Commenting on the Budget. the British Road Federation said that the remaining tax at. 2s. 6d. a gallon was still outrageousiy, high. and it was to be regretted that the Chancellor could not cut it and undo the harm his predecessors had done.
In a Budget supposedly designed to increase the competitive capacity of this country in the export market, it was astonishing that there were no proposals for speeding up the road programme.
Mr. F. D. Fitz-Gerald, national secre. tary of the Traders Road Transport Association, also " regretted that the Chancellor, as has been the case with his predecessors, has not seen fit to reduce one of the very heavy burdens upon trade and industry in the shape of motor taxa tion."
PEAK IN TRANSFER TO RAIL PASSED
THE peak in the transfer of traffic from road to rail has passed. Although British Railways and London Transport are still carrying additional traffic, the increases in the four weeks to March 24, as compared with those of a year ago, were less than in the four weeks to February 24.
Rail total freight receipts in the four weeks to March 24 were '7 per cent.
higher than those a year ago. Rail passenger revenue was up by 16 per cent. London Transport showed an improvement of 10 per cent., and the provincial and Scottish nationalized bus undertakings, 13 per cent.
The section of the British Transport Commission which includes British Road Services yielded 4 per cent, less revenue than a year ago.
L.T.E. APPEAL FAILS
AN appeal by the London Transport .Executive against the Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner's decision to alter the approved routes of seven services by requiring vehicles to leave London Airport via the Western Ramp to Bath Road, instead of via Heathrow Road, has been disallowed by the Minister of Transport.
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