Disappointing Rural Bus Probe
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-IE Ministry of Transport's latest attempts to find a solution to the ii bus problem have produced disointing results. They add yet another inclusive chapter to the saga which
first brought to public attention by Jack Committee in 1961. Special is in four parts of Britain carried the experiments, following studies ertaken for Mr. Marples in 1963.
areas chosen were Lincolnshire lb west of liorncastle), Montgomerye (west of Welshpool), Westmorland ith east of Appleby) and Northampitire (north of Brackley).
he conclusions, published by the istry on Tuesday, serve to underline different needs. views and complexiof the various localities. Searching common ground between the four wts, it can be said that their efforts improve existing services met with ial success—and they agreed that er liaison was needed between rural 7ators and the public.
.owever, their attempts to bring buses inserviced rural areas were an almost plete failure. And those teams which sed into the chances of postal buses
minibuses decided that both ideas 3 of no use.
he village carrier—a combined paser and goods service using the same cle—was considered in Montgomery also written off. Car sharing, either general or welfare use, received :d support; and, sadly, the schooling bus received little approval either, °ugh it struggled through in Westland.
ideed, the Westmorland report did 1 some vigour and hope--and thamptonshire had some firm words ay about fuel tax. But Lincolnshire ight that the long-term solution lay laving no small and remote corn the last words of their report. the thamptonshire team pointed out that operators in the area had emphasized heavy cost of maintaining rural ices.
ashing hard against fuel tax, the .ators said that partial remission in w rural areas would be no use. A !rat remission would mean a benefit -nore than 000,000 a year to the land Red undertaking as a whole— it corresponded to the amount they losing on 600 unren-itinerative ices.
:he of the ways in which the ntages of such a remission could be ed to the public would be the prof, of more than remunerative ces. to the benefit of rural and other s."
New Services se reports instance cases of new ces which were provided with titianhelp, but which had to be withdrawn. -Ines. 33 people said they wanted daily transport to and from work in Louth. A Lincolnshire Road Car Co. Ltd. week-day bus carried up to 133 passengers a week, but after six weeks the figure dropped and the experiment ended.
A Saturday evening service from Louth to Donington was extended to five other villages. Only four passengers were carried in eight weeks.
In Northants. a Tuesday evening bus from Helmdon via Radstone to Brackley and return was introduced by Jeffs villages. Only four passengers were carried in five weeks.
Another attempt (by H. Webster) was the extension of the Banbury-Helmdon service to Radstone on Thursday mornings. This was another failure, only two passengers being carried in eight weeks.
In Montgomery. a discontinued marketday service from Dolanog to Welshpool was reinstated, but the total number of passengers carried for 12 weeks was only 146.
In Westmorland. it was recorded that no services had been lost, despite the industry's troubles.
Improved Services There was a glimmer of success in the improvements to existing services which the teams tried out. In Lines, the Lincolnshire Road Car company introduced an additional Wednesday journey from I3enniworth to Louth and increased Saturday departures_ from Louth to Benniworth. Although only a few people made use of the facilities, the company agreed to an indefinite trial without guarantee.
in Montgomery. an experiment to delay the return departure time of the Foel-Welshpool market day service, on days when there were no school commitments, was continued throughout the school holidays.
Minor timetable improvements and diversions were implemented in Westmorland. But there was limited practical scope for anything else, because of the balance of gain and loss between various groups of passengers.
In Northants. Midland Red put in an additional journey to try to improve the services between Syresham and Whitfield. But 34 out of 50 journeys ran empty. But re-timings on the Banbury-WhitfieldSyresham service, to give better facilities for hospital visitors to Banbury on Thursdays and Sundays. resulted in an application to make the Thursday service permanent.
The Montgomeryshire report revealed " no demand' for the school bus, idea, and although a volunteer car scheme was worked out, no car owners came forward to operate it. It was felt that the needs of old people. and emergencies, could be met privately or by welfare organizations through private hire.
The Westmorland_ report revealed that the local school bus operator (Thomas Robinson) obtained a licence to carry passengers and after three months was averaging 20 a week. He agreed to continue the service indefinitely. The group recommended that education authorities should pay heed to those who provided unremunerative services to the community when awarding contracts.
This group also developed in theory an existing arrangement by which the County Council arrange free private transport to hospitals. They suggested it could also apply to hospital visitors, who would pay fares, but did not try out the experiment because it would involve legislation.
Westmorland's optimism was shared to some extent by the Lincolnshire group, who found that car-sharing seemed to be a well-established practice in their area as a means of getting to and from work.
hey thought that some modification to the licensing procedure to authorize carsharing and payment might be desirable.
The Northamptonshire team found " no scope" for the school bus scheme. There were seldom any spare seats, buses ran only during term-time, and passengers carried might be diverted from ordinary services.
Bus operators' representatives felt that car-sharing might constitute dangerous competition, and the idea received no support. There was one bright idea—all doctors in the area could be told that, subject to other commitments, ambulances were prepared to help in getting patients to doctors' surgeries where no other means of transport was available.
The Lincolnshire, Montgomeryshire and Westmorland reports all found a need to improve liaison between providers and users of transport. Local authorities and local operators should get together and regular discussions between parish councillors and operators would also be useful.
The Minister of Transport is to discuss the results of the experiments with local authorities and bus operators. While he feels that they have produced a number of " interesting results and possibilities ", they have convinced him that the rural bus problem cannot be dealt with in isolation from the national problems of maintaining efficient public transport services.