Phases of Passenger Travel
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Notes on a Variety of Aspects of Coach and Bus Travel
BRIGHTON'S NEW TRANSPORT BOARD.
Terms that are Being Arranged with the Southdown Concern and the Southern Railway.
REPORTING upon the Bill to constitute te transport board for the boroughs of Brighton and Hove and the adjoining district, with power to provide and work road-transport services, and to provide for the transfer to the board of the existing tramways and bus , undertakings, the town clerk of Brighton states that the Bill contains all necessary provisions for giving effiect to the agreement made between the Brighton and Hove corporations and Thomas Tilling, Ltd., which has now been executed.
The powers, duties and obligations which are now enjoyed by or imposed upon Brighton Corporation as a tramway undertaking are transferred to the board, and the rights of Brighton Corporation as the road authority under the Tramways Act, 1870, are preserved.
The report states that the town clerk would draw attention particularly to the fact that the standard clauses with regard to compensation being paid to employees of either Brighton Corpora
tion or the company have been anbodied in the Bin. By these clauses any employee who suffers direct pecuniary loss by abolition of office or by determination of his employment, or by diminution or loss of salary, wages or emoluments, is entitled to the same compensation as is provided to a local government officer displaced under the Local Government Act, 1929.
For the purpose of these clauses an employee who shall within five years after the appointed day be required by the board to perform duties which are not analogous to, or are unreasonable additions to those which he was required to perform before the appointed day may relinquish his position of employment and claim compensation, as also may an employee whose services are dispensed with or his salary, wages or emoluments are reduced within five years of the appointed day because his services are not required or his duties are diminished, and not on the ground of misconduct or physical or tneutal incapacity.
The committee will realize that if this Bill passes, the powers contained in the Consolidation Bill relating to tramways and buses will be withdrawn, and in this connection he points out that the modifications recently made by the corporation in clauses of the Consolidation Bill relating to tramways, e.g., .attaching of brackets to buildings have been carried forward into the Transport Bill.
Proposals for an agreement between the board when constituted and the Sonthdown Motor Services, Ltd., have been practically agreed to, with the following effect :—
1. The board's area is extended by the inclusion of so much of the Urban District of Shoreham-by-Sea as comprises that portion of the Upper Shoreham Road which lies between the western boundary of Southwick and the Red Lion Public House at Old Shoreham.
2. Southdown Motor Services, Ltd., surrenders to the board all local services which it now runs within the Borough of Brighton, but the board is not, without the consent of the company, to operate on such part of the Brighton-London main road as lies north of Waterhall Road, nor on the lower road between Portslade and Southwick.
3. The board is not to object to the company running services into the area C49
from points outside the area upon any road on which the company is now running.
4. The company shall so arrange its fares. that the fare paid by a passenger who is conveyed in either direction between points within the area and points without the area shall be higher than the board's fare between the boundary of the area and the same• point of setting down br picking up within the area, or on any competitive route, and so that the fare charged to any passenger who may be both picked lip and set down within the area shall be higher than the fare charged by the board for the same journey ; provided that the company shall be at liberty to issue season tickets between points within the area and points without at rates in relation to the distance which are normal for the system of the company as a whole, subject to the seasonticket rates being reasonably protective in relation to the day-to-day fares of. the board.
5. The board will not, without the consent of the company (a) run, or seek any consent or licence to , run, any public-service vehicle outside the area, nor (b) run any express, contract or private-hire vehicle.
6. The board shall seek powers in its Bill to prevent any other company or person operating stage carriages within the area of the board, but shall exempt the company from this prohibition so long as it runs stage carriages in accordance with the terms of this agreement.
7. An. option is given to the board to run outside the area beyond the Red Lion Public Rouse at Old Shoreham to the Norfolk Bridge at New Shoreham as agent for the Southdown Company at fares and upon terms to be agreed.
8. Notwithstanding anything contained in the agreement the company may, if so required by the Southern Railway, convey passengers at such fares as may be determined by the Southern Railway into and out of the Brighton railway station from and to points within the area but outside a radius of 24 miles from such station, provided that the company's vehicles when so conveying passengers shall be operated to connect with specified, railway trains to or from London and
other places remote from Brighton, and shall not ply' for hire within the radius.
It is further provided that before the Southern Railway requires the company to exercise the powers of this clause it shall give one month's notice to the board of the services it intends to require the company to establish, and to the extent and so long as the board shall establish and maintain such services at fares and in accordance with time-tables to the reasonable satisfaction of the Southern Railway, to that extent the rights conferred upon the
Southern Railway and the company under this clause shall be suspended. Any question which may arise under this proviso as to whether a service established and maintained by the board is or should be reasonably satisfactory to the Southern Railway shall, in case of dispute, be determined by the
Traffic Commissioners. It should be noted that the Southern Railway has not yet agreed to the insertion of the proviso to this clause.
Unless otherwise agreed by the board and the company the above terms are to be binding On both parties for a period of 15 years from the date of the constitution of the board.