Ribble offer Carlisle bus control
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by CM reporter AN OFFER to let Carlisle City Council have control over the buses in the city and its immediate vicinity has been made by Ribble Motor Services.
The council would be free to fix fares at whatever level it wished, but would have to pick up the bill for any losses incurred.
But the council would also be able to take any profit that was made by the services. Ribble would only require to "break even," as this was required by the charter of the National Bus Company.
This new policy of the NBC is apparently to let " selfcontained" areas be controlled by the city authorities, provided these authorities were also financially responsible.
Now a full report is being drawn up by council representative Mr Richard Clucas and will be submitted to the council. He told CM that at present the council was frustrated by having legal responsibility for the bus service but no power to fix fares.
He said that in the year ended May 1975 the urban services made a profit of £60,000 but that a similar amount was lost by services in the surrounding rural area for which the city council was responsible. All these services operated from one depot and virtually formed a self-contained island within the Ribble network.