Commissioners reject £0.25m bus service
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THE SCOTTISH Traffic Commissioners have thrown out plans by both Central Scottish Omnibuses and Strathclyde PTE for new services at Larkhall, in Lanarkshire.
Central wanted a short period licence for a service from Blantyre, while the PTE proposed a 13.5-mile extension of a city service.
Central's operations manager, Alexander Perrie, said the PTE would abstract traffic from its existing services on the main corridor into Glasgow and would lead it to cut evening and Sunday services.
And he argued that on the basis of his company's operating costs which were said to be one third less than the PTE's the PTE service would cost i291,750-a-year to run, and would need 833,572 passengers paying an average fare of 35p just to break even.
PTE bus manager George Hall argued that his service would meet its costs from revenue. He said it would cost only i..230,000-a-year On a full cost basis.
PTE public transport officer David Bannerman said the need to improve services to Larkhall had first been brought to Central's attention in June last year, but despite several reminders, it did not come up with any proposals.
The PTE's direct operations department, meantime, had put forward its own proposal which the co-ordinators persuaded it to withdraw, but they had been unable to have any discussions with Central. Consequently, although neither service was ideal, he felt the PTE's was better.
Mr Bannermann's admission that the PTE's application had been made without reference to its Own co-ordinating arm, prompted Commissioners' chairman Hugh McNamara to comment that it appeared that not only did the PTE not speak to Central, it did not speak to the PTE.
• Strathclyde Region has warned the National Union of Railwaymen that it will switch its rail support cash to bus services if the current dispute over driver-only trains is not resolved by October 31._