Latest News of Fares
Page 49
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Last Application in the North?
Morecambe Applies at Last: E.Y.M.S. Faces Objectors: 24. Minimum For Derby : Devon General's Proposals on Workmen's Fares : Lincoln Tries Again
CLAIM1NG to be the last undertaking in the north to apply for revised fares, Morecambe and Heysham Corporation has now asked for permission to add 1.d. to all fares up to 21d. and id. to those over 3d. Up to 1950, the undertaking had put £33,000 to the reserve fund, and it was stated recently that a is. rate would be needed to cover the present deficiency.
Arguing that there was no change in the circumstances of the company that justified an application for higher charges, objectors at the hearing of the case made by East Yorkshire Motor Services, Ltd., before the Yorkshire Licensing Authority, described it as unreasonable. The concern proposed raising 3-id. and 44d. single fares by id., abolishing return tickets up to Is. 3d.. adding 2d. in the shilling to return tickets from Is. 4d. to 10s. and increasing the price of contract tickets by 25 per cent. There were five objectors.
" Unfair " to a Group
For the company, Mr. W. R. Hargrave said that only part of an application made last year had been granted. Since then, fuel costs had risen by 123,350 a year and wages costs by 125,000 a year. The objectors declared that much of the company's revenue was provided by passengers who paid 3d. and 4d. The application was unfair to a particular group of users.
Another objector said that the company had not applied to reduce fare when it was paying a 25 per cent. tax-free dividend. The general manager, Mr. C. R. H. Wreathall, said that this could have been done at the expense of building up reserves for vehicle replacement. Another representative of the objectors said that the company was well managed and administered and had accumulated an appropriate reserve fund to meet replacement costs The East Midland Licensing Authority has now given Derby Corporation permission to revise charges and to institute a 2d. minimum fare. Some fare stages will be modified, so that certain 2id. and 3d. tickets will cost 3d. and 4d. respectively. This is the third application granted to Derby Corporation since January, 1951. The first, granted in January, came into effect in April, to be followed by another application in June, after Which fares were modified in September.
Last Sunday. fares on Oldham Corporation services above 11.d. went up by id.; workmen's tickets were also increased.
Aberdare Corporation has been given permission by the South Wales Licensing Authority to reduce schoolchildren's fares on six services.
Proposals aimed at reducing the available number of return ;tickets, modifying single and workmen's charges and abolishing workmen's returns have been published by the Devon General Omnibus and Touring Co., Ltd., and Exeter Corporation. The proposals concerning cheap 4ay arid monthly return tickets envisage the deletion of returns up to Ild, and the addition of 2d. and 3d. to those up to, and over, 2s. respectively.
Lincoln Corporation, which, as reported last week, was unsuccessful in its application to revise fares, has applied again. This time, the proposal to increase the children's rate from Id. to -Lid. has been omitted.
Bath Tramways Motor Co., Ltd.. and its parent organization, Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., have both applied for slight variations in fares affecting sections of individual routes, or routes common with other operators which have raised fares. The Brist.4 concern's proposals are necessary to meet protective-fare requirements in Gloucester, Cheltenham and other centres. The application for a general increase in charges is to be heard on February 28.
Brighton Corporation and Brighton. Hove and District Omnibus Co., Ltd., have now applied for permission to vary fares following objections made to earlier authorized increases.
To offset an estimated deficit of £12,160 incurred last year, Grimsby Corporation is to apply for a ?Ai, minimum charge. This would aliment revenue by £20,000 a year: Stockport Corporation, which may incur a loss of £41,000 in the current year, has proposed to advance the scale of workmen's fares. Operating costs have gone up by 05.000 since 1950, it was stated last week.