Agency agreement rationalises fares
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WHAT is thought to be the first agency agreement outside the PTE areas was given the official stamp of approval by the North Western Traffic Commissioners last week. They granted authority to Ribble Motor Services Ltd to rationalise its fares and conditions in the Burnley and Pendle districts, to bring them into line with the Burnley and Pendle municipal undertaking.
Giving evidence before the Commissioners at Rawtenstall, Mr John Whiteley, the assistant county surveyor of Lancs County Council. said it was Lancashire's objective to eventually achieve a county-wide rationalisation of fares and conditions as between Ribble and the municipal operators This objective was being approached in stages, he said, with agency agreements with each of the district councils concerned. Burnley and Pendle was the first such agreement to come to fruition.
Ribble would operate as agents of the district council, with fares, conditions and level of service decided upon by the council within a framework set down by Lancashire. Initially, the scheme would be financially supported by the county council, but the ultimate aim was that it should be self-supporting.
Often buses were operating at different fare scales within a district and one of the major problems was the considerable disparity between Ribble and the municipal operators.
The real ultimate aim was service integration. Before that was possible it was necessary to remove the problems arising from commercial competition, which included restrictive and protective conditions. The first step was an agency agreement with common fare scales and operating conditions.
Mr B. King, Ribble's traffic manager, said Ribble would be paid the full operating costs of the services concerned, consequently there would be no net effect on the finances of the company.
The arrangement with Burnley and Pendle was very similar to the ones the company had made with the Greater Man
chester Transport and MersE side PTEs. Its effect would be decrease 77 per cent of I Ribble fare in the area, a increase 12 per cent. T remaining 11 per cent would unchanged.
Mr G. H. Carpenter, dept town clerk of Burnley, said t problem of the higher level Ribble fares had evoked mu' adverse criticism and it hi been one which the loc authorities had been anxious resolve.
These applications were t result of long and detail, negotiations between Ribbl the county council and all ti district councils, because of ti implications inherent in county-wide application of tl policy.
Granting the application
Mr Hutchings said tf. Commissioners wished to co gratulate all parties concernec
It was not only the fir occasion such an agreeme had been achieved in Lanc shire, it was also the first re occasion it had been achieve nationally. The Commissione hoped it would set a precede for operators in the Nor Western traffic area.