West Yorks £1.2m subsidy stabilises NBC fares
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WEST YORKS County Council has stepped in with cash support of £1.2m to prevent fares going up on National Bus subsidiaries operating in the West Yorks Passenger Transport Executive area. This means that fares increases authorised last month will not be implemented.
In West Yorks the NBC companies operate 40 per cent of the bus services, but this subsidy is only 20 per cent of the E5.78m allocated by the county council for the support of all bus operations in 1976/77 within the county.
The £1.2m will still leave the NBC companies a small operating loss with their present costing system, and slightly more support may be needed for them to break even.
Talks are taking place towards the establishment of a joint management company to oversee the operation of all West Yorkshire bus operations, and a decision on this is expected within a few months.
The fares increases for the West Yorks Road Car Company, West Riding, Yorkshire Woollen District and Yorkshire Traction were authorised by the Traffic Commissioners at hearings on February 12, 13 and 16. But at a further sitting the Commissioners gave West Yorks County Council permission to vary the new approved scales by giving the £1.2m subsidy.
Some fares on Yorkshire Traction services will rise as these are at present well below the "regional scale" that the county council is seeking to impose.
Commenting on the decision to subvent the National Bus Company's fare scale, County cllr Matthews said: "It is our policy to establish a common fare scale throughout West Yorkshire. Before this present application, most fares on National Bus Company services were already higher than the regional standard scale which applies on the Executive's services.
"If this application were to be implemented, obviously the differential would have widened still further. We decided therefore that it was proper to prevent this fare increase in order to assist those passengers in the county who are served by the National Bus Company,"