Temporary D reg?
Page 20
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
REGISTRATION of bus services under deregulation could be only a temporary need, Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley said last week.
Answering questions after speaking at a seminar on Shire County Transport at the School of Advanced Urban Studies, Bristol University, Mr Ridley said that he "was not nearly so firm on registration in the long run as I am in the immediate future".
While he acknowledged it was "vital" for bringing in the new system of tendering for subsidised services and "primarily for the counties' benefit" in identifying what would be run commercially, Mr Ridley was not yet ready to say who the registration authority would be or if he would be ready to extend the registration distance for services carrying passengers from five to 20 or 30 miles.
But he indicated that there would be little enforcement activity against those who ignored the registration requirements. "I don't want to make registration a major hazard for the small man",. he said.
The Minister felt that "a lot of people will over-register to frighten others off".
Others would not register. How the county would know what the market was going to provide was "one of the biggest problems" under his plan.
"I accept that", he said, but he strongly resisted calls for protection of subsidised routes and said he would like to ban the term "creaming off".
Mr Ridley did not believe operators would withdraw to their "core networks" when de regulation arrived — a 40 per cent cutback had been threatened by some. "They're saying it to frighten me", he argued. They would want to hang on to their territory. That would become clear from registration.
On quality control, Mr Ridley believed in the "deterrent effect" from early actions to show the Department of Transport was in earnest. "Two or three cases would show the way", he claimed. He said that vehicles would occasionally have to be stopped on the road.
The Minister was challenged on the inter-relationship of school and ordinary bus services and the risk that education authorities would not be happy to put school children on unregulated services, leading to the growth of separate fleets.
But Mr Ridley saw school transport as primarily a matter for the Department of Education but said counties would be able to call for tenders mixing schools and ordinary passengers under the new system.
TRANSITIONAL grants to help maintain rural buses during the run into deregulation and the substitution of tenders would be paid on the basis of mileage operated through the existing system of fuel tax rebate, Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley said at the SAUS Conference.
He described the initial £20m a year grant, to be phased out over four years, as "massive". It is understood that allocation will be made to all services providing links to "rural" parishes and will apply to new as well established routes.