PTE costs
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FIGURES just published by two short of £2 per mile.
In the 1983/84 annual reports of Merseyside and Strathclyde PTEs, total operating costs per mile are given with maintenance, management and depreciation charges included.
For Merseysicle, the figure for its bus fleet is 196.4 per mile (1982/83: 183.1p), while the Strathclyde figure is 1 86p (1982/83: 178p).
Merseyside reduced its fares by an average of seven per cent in 1983/84 and increased patronage on its own 1,233 buses from 224m to 252m. Local authority revenue support rose from 40 to 44 per cent, a total bill of £33.3m.
In the course of the year, it won a contract for schools transport in Liverpool and St Helens. While that business was won at other operators' expenses, it is examining the possibility of seeking outside tenders for groups of stage services and schools services.
Crosville (E3.2m), Ribble (£3.1m) and Greater •Manchester PTE (£573,000) received revenue support from Merseyside in 1983/84.
Strathclyde increased its fares by an average of five per cent in the same period, and although passenger traffic fell from 137m to 134.5m, it believes that traffic loss has begun to level off.
Revenue support fell from £10.2m in 1982/83 to £8.6m, a fall of 20.5 per cent to 16.8 per cent. Private hire revenue rose from 308,000 to 358,000, and the number of passengers carried on private and contract hires climbed from 326,000 to 344,000.
Two experiments undertaken by Strathclyde appear to have been popular. A zonal ticketing system for bus/rail services to the south-east of Glasgow has generated additional patronage and may be extended to other areas.
A colour coding experiment to give passengers more in formation on the route and fares charged on one crossGlasgow service helped increase that service's revenue by 5.3 per cent when revenue on the entire bus system rose by only one per cent.
In the same period, Scottish Bus Group services in the area carried 1.8 per cent extra passengers, the PTE Underground won 2.5 per cent more traffic and British Rail services lost 1.7 per cent traffic.