Taximen beat 'dial-a-ride' application
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• Bristol's rail passenger "dial-a-ride" pick-up service has been rejected by the Western Traffic Commissioners but the city taxi organizations which led the fight against the service have agreed to co-operate on a new scheme for passengers using British Railways' Park Way station.
At a hearing on Monday the Commissioners refused to grant an express licence for the service being operated by Bristol Omnibus Co for BR.
The service uses three Morris Marinas, manned by former bus drivers, which ferry rail travellers on a door-to-door basis between their homes and the new station. There is a fiat fare of 40p for each journey and the operation is restricted within certain West Bristol postal areas and bounded by M4 and M5 in the north.
City taxi-owners and drivers formed an action committee to fight "dial-a-ride" because they saw it as a threat to their livelihood.
For the taximen Mr C. S. Rawlings claimed the scheme cut across the licensing laws. The service failed to pinpoint specific routes which were essential before express service licences could be granted, he said. Bristol Omnibus had defined only postal areas in its application.
Mr J. R. C. Samuel Gibbon, chairman of the Commissioners, concluded that the application as it stood should not be granted. He did not want to add much to their decision, he said, because the Commissioners felt that it was a matter which could be solved given good will between the parties. The Commissioners did, however, grant an extension to Bristol Omnibus's short-term licence until the period allowed for lodging an appeal had expired or until any appeal had been settled. Any agreement reached on a new scheme would need a new application.