MERTHYR, CARDIFF AND THE RHONDDA TRAMWAYS COMPANY
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The Dispute Still Unsettled : An Explanation of the Root of the Trouble DESPITE the Ministry of Transport rebuke, reported in aur issue dated December 30th, to Merthyr Tydvil Corporation in respect of its tardiness in executing the Ministry decision, of several months' standing, that licences must be issued to the Rhondda Tramways Co., Ltd., for the Merthyr-Cardiff route, on equal terms with those of the Merthyr and Cardiff Corporations' services, the Merthyr authorities have de-, layed conformity to the. Ministry orders. The company has for months refused to accept the" licences except 'on the basis of equality of running conditions, as ordered by the Ministry. In November last the Ministry further ,ordered the council to grant the licences on equal terms with the Cardiff and Merthyr. municipal services and to extend the system of inter-availability of tickets of the two councils' services to the company's 'buses. The• Merthyr authorities declined to act on this order.
At the January meeting of the Merthyr Watch Committee the mayor said the committee would offer the company licences for three buses, as ordered by the Ministry, but the matter of conditions of running and compliance with the Ministry order as to interavailable tickets was one for the bus committee.
The mayor said that the company had for some time refused to accept licences because the same terms were not granted to them as to the municipal ser. vices, but now the Ministry had ordered equal terms for all three services. "We objected to this," said the mayor, "be e40 cause Cardiff allowed Merthyr municipal buses to pick up passengers in the Cardiff area on similar facility being granted to Cardiff buses in Merthyr •, but we cannot allow the company such concession because it has nothing to offer us in return." Again, there was the question of allowing the company to share the facility of inter-availability of tickets.
The mayor explained that it was his idea that, rather than allow the company to have the same terms as the municipalities, Merthyr should, if the Ministry insisted on equal terms for the company, forgo its right to pick up in the 'Cardiff area and Cardiff should forgo its right in Merthyr.
A member suggested that the travelling public would be detrimentally affected by this and by the suggested withdrawal of the inter-availability of tickets rather than allow the company to share in it.
A member said that, notwithstanding the Ministry orders already issued in this matter, the Merthyr authorities would have to "discuss" these questions with the Ministry.
The mayor said the licences had been offered to the company on the same terms as -those issued to other " outside " operators—that is, on the condition that it did not interfere with internal traffic by in-borough plying.
It will be recalled that the Ministry's November letters insisted on the equal terms with the corporation services throughout the route, and ordered the sharing with the company on the interavailable-tickets arrangements on two grounds: (a) convenience to the public ; and (b) an agreement for equal terms made by the corporation with the company to induce the latter, at the Ministry inquiry into the proposalsin May last, to withdraw opposition to municipal plying on the route. The Ministry states that the councils should carry out their undertaking as regards equal terms with the company.
At a meeting of the Merthyr Bus Committee, held subsequently to the watch-committee meeting, it was decided further to defer decision as to the carrying out of the Ministry's order for extending the inter-availability of tickets to the company, and as to granting the company equal plying rights in the borough in respect to this route. Further " negotiation" is to take place on the questions at issue. In the meantime, the Ministry ruling is, in effect, in abeyance. This matter has been delayed a long while, and it is to be hoped that the explanation of the trouble by the mayor of Merthyr Tydvil will lead to a prompt removal of the obstacles to an agreement. In such cases the essential requirement, sometimes lost sight of, is that the services should be made to give the utmost convenience to the public. At all costs an agreement should be reached without curtailing facilities.