Fares increase is justified
Page 38
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• In a written decision, the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners have granted applications made by Southdown Motor Services Ltd. and the City of Portsmouth Passenger Transport Department for fares increases. The applications were heard in Portsmouth on September 4, 5 and 10.
In support of its application, designed to bring the Portsmouth Area in line with the General Area, Portsmouth Corporation stated at the public inquiry that it had made a loss on the year's operations to March 31, 1968, of .£11,489. The grant of this application so far as they were concerned would produce £4,500 of additional revenue on certain joint services.
The objectors to the application, Hampshire County Council, Petersfield RDC and Havant and Waterloo and Fareham LIDCs objected on two counts. First, they considered that the additional revenue was not needed and secondly, they criticized the manner in which the increase was to be obtained, in particular the abolition of the 3d minimum fare, the increase in children's fares from half to three-quarters adult fares, and the increase by 20 per cent in the scholars' term tickets. They wanted the burden of finding the increased revenue needed spread over all users of the buses.
The Traffic Commissioners considered putting back the Southdown application until early 1969 when it could be considered with the Southdown General Area application. They decided, however, that the current application sought to introduce in the Portsmouth Area fares revisions implemented in the General Area in July 1967. They also took into account the fact that the travelling public in the Portsmouth Area had not had to make any further contributions to the increased costs of Southdown's operations for almost three years.
The Commissioners find Southdown's need for increased fares proved and have granted the applications as applied for with the exception that the 3d minimum fare will be retained at the existing mileage rate.
Stricter enforcement of weight regulations in France is behind the showing in Paris this week of welded aluminium-bodied tipping semi-trailers by both Traitor and Fruehauf (France). Both these makers have only this year begun to market an aluminium body as an alternative to their standard steel-bodied tipping semi-trailers. In both cases the weight saving is in excess of a ton Traitor are showing a 9-metre (29.5(t) long aluminium-bodied semi-trailer, and Fruehauf one a 7.5 metres (24.7ftl length (seen here), both with Er/bra 7ENE twin-ram front-end tipping gear as standard equipment. The only difference in the tipping assemblies is that the Traitor gear has four-stage rams and the Fruehauf five stages. The need for less dead weight on tippers of all types is expected to give an extra boost to the increasing sales that Edbro's Dutch associate, Edbro Europa NV, of Zoetermeer, is making in France, where heavy underpody tipping assemblies are traditional.