Libble Seek E175,000 Additional
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Levenue : Cannot Serve Capital
an attempt to raise £175,000 additional revenu e, Ribble Motor ices, Ltd.. and their associated corn:s applied at a joint sitting of the ic Commissioners at Morecambe last : for permission to increase their
.Mr. F. Williamson, chairman of North Western Traffic Commis' rs, sat with Mr. J. A. T. Hanlon, le Northern Area. and Maj. F. S. wood, of the 'Yorkshire Area.
r. F. D. Walker, for Ribble, tined that ih general fares of less 7d. single would not be increased, it the cost of a return journey for 1 between stages of 7d.-1s. ld, single d be subject to a ld. maximum rice. Express fares were to be raised lation to the length of the journey he basis of 3d. per 5s. Contract t holders' rates were proposed to be ased pro rata.
v no occasion during the four finanyears ended March 31, 1958, had been a sufficient profit, after taxi, to serve the company's capital provide for the replacing of wasting s. The difference in the amount h the company had been able to set and the sum which should have provided, for the replacement of :les alone was £278,773. As this d have been subject to tax, the gross ant of the shortfall would have been .207.
addition, provision had to be made the expansion and improvement of ;es and new bus stations in keeping modern standards. The industry had .hit hard by the 1958 Budget, which raised from 3 per cent. to 10 per
cent. the amount of profits tax payable, thus increasing the difficulty of setting aside badly needed reserves.
Mr. H. Bottomley, general manager, said that from October 25, 1958, there had been a wages increase which had added £110,000 a year to costs. To this had to be added a £28,000 rise in. National Insurance contributions. The last time that Ribble fares had• come under review had been in 1957.
Decision was reserved.
The North Western Road Car Co., Ltd.. _ will next month seek fare increases designed to yield £40,000 in a full year. The wage award is costing them £60,000 a year.
It is proposed that single fares up to 5d. should remain unchanged, whilst some fares of 6d. and over should be increased by Id. In some cases, however, the revisions would result in Id. reductions. Three classes of returns would be affected —ordinary. -business and specified workmen's. Some up to 2s. would go up by Id. and some over 2s. would be increased by 2d.
The company will request that returns should be abolished if they work out at double or more than double the single fare, Bristol Joint Transport Committee are discussing the efforts of the Bristol Omnibus Co., Ltd., to meet rising costs. Although the pay award cost them £150,000, the company have tried to raise the money through economies rather than fare increases, but now that £18,400 has been added to their annual fuel bill the question of fare increases is again being studied.