Stop All Area Schemes at Once
Page 33
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DASSENGER-TRANSPORT opera.L tors look to the Government. :to instruct the British Transport Commission to abandon area schemes by .a direction from the Minister of Trans port, Under _Section 4 of the Transport Act, 1947. Thereafter, the CommiSsion's privilege to rim buses anywhere without a licence should be removed. The B.T,C. Should be 'left only with a financial interest in certain under
takings. .
Mr. John Birch, chairman of the Passenger Vehicle Operators Association, expressed these hopes at the Association's annual dinner in London, on Monday. He added that freeenterprise operators did not want the Tilling organization back.
What he described as. the London Transport Executive's "rapaciousness" vas, he said, exemplified by its attack on Mr. W. -H. Smith, of Buntingford, and by the introduction . of wasteful competition in excursions and tours and private hire. The L.T.E. should be ,limited to the powers which it held before the 1947 Act was passed, and should be subjected to healthy competition. Now that coach operators were freed from the threat of nationalization, the P.V.O.A. would be able to give greater help to the National Taxi-car Association in its efforts to obtain relief from purChase tax on hire cars and taxicabs. Mr. Birch complained of the excessive taxation on' all forms of road transport.
He was 'alarmed at the rise in the cost of operation, brought about partly by the damage done to vehicles by bad roads, and the need for increasing expenditure on maintenance. He hoped, that the new Government would improve the highways.
Mr. Birch thought it was creditable that coach fares had risen only 25 pet cent, above the pre-war level, but another increase was, he said, inevitable. He hoped that the Licensing Authorities would grant higher rates in time fur the 1952 -season. Their decisions would have to be given by January.
Mi. Wilfred Andrews, chairman ol the Royal Automobile Club, also called for relief from taxation, and better roads, although he doubted whether the new Government would be able to provide either.
Sir. David Maxwell Fyfc, K.C.. the new Home Secretary, was prevented from attending the dinner by consultations with the Prime Minister.