New Government look at feeder services
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• The Government is to look again at the limitations set on express feeder services in the Transport (London) Bill, promised Mr. Bob Brown, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, after Tory attempts last week to alter the Bill in committee.
Mr. Anthony Berry for the Opposition, said that feeder services should link with both express and stage carriage services. He recalled that the definition of a stage carriage, which dated back to 1930, was based on the lowest fare for any section of the journey being less than 1 s.
There had been considerable talk of revising the definition to increase the shilling to a more realistic figure, and should this happen there was every prospect that excursions or tours would again be operable within the ambit of a stage service licence, said Mr. Berry.
The definition of a feeder service was intended to include excursions or tours, and therefore it was logical that it should cover all types of service which might come within that licensing category.
Mr. Berry noted that the Opposition amendments were all directed to reframing the definition of an express feeder service, and altering it to a feeder service. Mr. Brown replied that he could understand Opposition Members wanting to protect the independent operators by allowing feeder buses to be run without requiring the LTE's consent whether they connected with stage or express services.
He thought he should dispose of the notion that the Minister could willingly connive at any LTE empire-building by raising the shilling limit. This would be the height of irresponsibility since regulations drawn up with this purpose in view would have effects on issues far more wide-reaching than the one being dealt with then.
The example which came to his mind, said Mr. Brown, was that express services converted into stage carriage ones would become eligible for the bus fuel grant.
The Committee accepted a Government change in the Bill so that any permanent consents under the provisions of the London Passenger Transport Act of 1933 will remain in force. The number of these consents was very small, said Mr. Brown, and most had been granted on an annual basis to independent operators to run bus services into London. He thought there was only one competing service.