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New Restrictions on Extended Tours?
Page 93
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AN extraordinary position arises from the long-awaited decisions on a number of appeals, two of which were heard in July and October last year, and two in September and October. In general, the appeals arose in connection with extended tours on which passengers are carried to a destination where accommodation is provided for them for several days, whence they are taken
in the same vehicle for local excursions in the surrounding country.
Yorkshire operators also objected to the giving of permission to Lancashire operators to pick up in Leeds and Bradford.
The Minister has now decided not to vary the Commissioners' decisions. The official notification of this decision adds that the Minister " understands that the services will shortly be under review once more on applications in respect of the next licensing period."
In effect, therefore, the Minister refers the points at issue back to the Commissioners for further consideration on these further applications. In the Yorkshire Area, at any rate, the further ' applications were heard in December by the Commissioners, who deferred their decisions pending the
rulings on the appeals concerning the previous applications!
The Minister also hopes that the two bodies of Commissioners concerned (Yorkshire and North-Western) will have had an opportunity, when reviewing the situation, of consulting with one another as to the manner in which suitable control may be maintained over these services.
In Yorkshire, the L.M.S. Railway Co. appealed against the granting of certain licences to Messrs. Feather Brothers (Bradford), Messrs. J. H. Robinson (Oldham), Messrs. T. Heaps and Sons (Leeds), Mr. C. Brearley (Halifax) and Mr. G. Chapman (Huddersfield). These appeals involved railway objection to the tours as such.
The appeals in which Yorkshire operators were opposed to the picking up of passengers in Leeds and Bradford by Lancashire operators were by R. Barr (Leeds), Ltd., Messrs. Feather Brothers, Mr. F. Ward (Bingley) and Messrs. Anderton Brothers (Keighley).
The respondents were Messrs. J. H. Robinson and Messrs. H. Shearing (Oldham).
In the North-Western Area, the L.M.S. appealed against a decision in favour of Y. Helliwell and Sons, Ltd.; and J. Smith and Co. (Wigan), Ltd., appealed against certain conditions attached to its licences.
• The Minister has suggested various points for consideration concerning services which combine long-date tours and local day excursions. At the hearing of the appeals, counsel for the railway described these facilities as " express services in disguise."
" It appears proper," states the notification, "to consider their, effect on persons providing regular longdistance transport, whether by road or by rail, between places in the catchment area and the main destination point, and it may also be necessary to consider the position of persons providing facilities for local tours and excursions at the' destination,* even though, in .the present cases, it does not appear that objections were lodged by these local operators.
"The control to be exercised over such of these services as may be licensed may involve:— "(1) Regulation of the number of vehicles which may be run and the occasions or periods when they may be operated. (2) Control of fares, as distinct from charges for accommodation. (3) Limitation of the size of the area from which passengers are to be drawn, and the definition of the manner in which the picking-up points specified in that area are to be served."
The Minister concurs with the view of the North-Western Commissioners that the method of serving the permitted picking-up points should not be left at large, hut should be brought under proper control. He also agrees generally with their. view that there is no essential difference between a point of origin and a picking-up point.