64 Revolutionary Decision" on Workmen's Fares
Page 27
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WHAT was described as a " revoluVV tionary decision " by the South Wales Licensing Attthority, on an application by the Western Welsh Omnibus Co., Ltd., to abolish workmen's fares, met with opposition at a Cardiff inquiry, last week, held by Mr. Tudor Davies, an inspector of the Ministry of Transport.
Mr. Edmund Davies, K.C., representing the National Coal Board and a number of bodies which resisted the abolition, said that the Western Welsh application was for 39 workmen's fares to be increased to the level of ordinary fares. It did not refer to colliers' services.
" It was said that workmen's fares were an anomaly and an anachronism," 111r. Davies declared. The increases were said by the operators to be from 3 per cent to 33 pet cent., and an overill increase of 25 per cent. was granted. ,ncreases in fares on 12 special services vere also granted on the same basis.
Special services and reduced fares had had Parliamentary sanction and could not be done away with unless Parliament decided, as a matter of principle, that they should go. The application involved a substantial increase in travelling costs to a vital section of the community.
Mr. Davies maintained that if any loss by the company were spread over the whole of the travelling public, any increase in fares would be infinitesimal.
After stating that the Licensing Authority, at the original hearing. refused to hear evidence from his side on the practical outcome of the applications, Mr. Davies added: "It is not a question of one part of the public subsidizing another. If you find that the industry of a locality is threatened by certain changes in transport, it is a matter which should be taken into account."
The effects of a strike in the coal industry as a result of increased fares would not be just a domestic matter. The hearing will be continued in London on April 23,