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Commuter express not viable —report

3rd August 1979, Page 24
3rd August 1979
Page 24
Page 24, 3rd August 1979 — Commuter express not viable —report
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

LUXURY EXPRESS commuter coach services catering for journeys between seven and fifteen miles offer little scope for success says a report from the Transport and Road Research Laboratory.

The report by R. L. Jackson Luxury express commuter coach services, describes three luxury express coach services, the Nottingham Commuter Service, the Halebarns Executive Service and the Abingdon-Oxford Commuter Express.

The Nottingham Commuter was run by Rainworth Travel and started operating in September 1977. The service was withdrawn in January 1978 after attracting only seven regular passengers.

The Halebarns Executive Service is run by Greater Manchester PTE and operates from Halebarns to the centre of Manchester, a distance of 10 miles. Despite passenger loads of about 20 in the mornings and 16 in the evenings the service has not attracted enough revenue to pay its running costs.

The TRRL report found that the GMT running costs were considerably higher than those of the private operator that ran the Nottingham service, but even if a private operator took over the Halebarns service, it is unlikely that the service could break even.

Finally the AbingdonOxford Commuter Express which managed an average load of ten never recovered more than 25 per cent of its operating costs.

The services' lack of success, says the report, were that fares were high in relation to the "perceived" cost of motoring, the inflexible service timings, the problems of finding sufficient patronage from a limited catchment area and, in one case, the method of fares payment which required payment for unmade journeys in advance.