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PTA rail losses equal 6d rate

11th October 1968
Page 32
Page 32, 11th October 1968 — PTA rail losses equal 6d rate
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• "This confirms our worst fears", commented Cllr. Neville Trotter, chairman of Newcastle upon Tyne transport, highways and traffic committee, when asked by CM this week for his reactions to the figures of Tyneside rail losses revealed by the Government on Monday.

Cllr. Trotter pointed out that the total of 097,000 stated in the letter from the Minister of Transport was for the Newcastle-South Shields and North Tyneside services only and that when the figures for other services within the proposed Passenger Transport Authority area were included (for routes such as the Sunderland line) the total would be just about the Lim which he had forecast. This, he said, was the equivalent of a 6d rate over the whole Tyneside PTA area.

News of the rail losses was contained in a letter from Mr. Marsh to Cllr. Trotter explaining that British Railways had not yet been able to produce complete figures for The other three PTA areas (Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool). The letter from Mr. Marsh goes on:— "I had hoped to write to you all at the same time, but since estimates are available for the two services in which the Tyneside PTA will be principally interested I thought it better to let you have these rather than wait any longer till figures for the other areas are complete. The estimates are based on the present level of service and usage and mid1968 price levels and arc calculated according to the method recommended by the Joint Steering Group. The figures could be substantially affected by changes in these factors and in any event are subject to later refinement and correction.

Service Estimated present annual

Deficit Newcastle-South Shields £199.000 North Tyneside £598,000

"Let me at once remind you that the Transport Bill provides for the Minister to make grants—which will initially be at the rate of 90 per cent—to contributions which the PTA decide to make to these services; and that it is, in fact, the PTAs themselves which will have to make these decisions. The figures above represent no more than estimates of what these services are costing now."

Cllr. Trotter told CM that he thought the PTA's first job would be to look closely into how the losses had been computed. In equity, he thought they should be dealt with on a marginal costing basis, establishing how much would be saved if the trains did not run at all.

The PTA's second task, he suggested, should be to try to persuade the Government to maintain its grant for as long as possible; he thought that any reorganization to put services on a sounder economic footing would take a very long time to achieve its effect.

Cllr. Trotter believed the PTA would be faced with four possible courses in respect of the railway services: (1) to shut the lines down, which he thought was not a reasonable proposition at all; (2) to continue to run them on a shoestring, as now, which he thought was an unsatisfactory solution; (3) to modernize them without electrification, which was probably the best course in the present circumstances; (4) to modernize and electrify them, which would produce the required services, but was probably not economically viable and certainly could not be entertained unless BR had major electrification plans for adjacent main line services—and there was little prospect of this for at least 20 years.


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