Bus White Paper clarified
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THE CLEAREST detail so far has emerged from two further consultation papers issued by the Department of Transport on the proposals contained in the Buses White Paper published in July.
They concern the development of public transport in the metropolitan counties and the registration and control of local services in the immediate post deregulation period, and define what a local service will be.
Following the abolition of metropolitan county councils, it is proposed that public transport functions in these areas should be the responsibility of joint boards constituted from elected members of metropolitan district councils. The paper asks for comments on these points: • A proposal that the districts should take over responsibility for services in their own areas; • The future of the PTE operations following abolition; • Agreements between PTE and National Bus Company operators; • The possible break-up of PTE operations into smaller units; • And the future role of PTEs in relation to passenger transport authorities.
The second paper discusses the future of local services when road service licensing is ended. It suggests that a local service is redefined as one on which passengers are carried at separate fares and on which they might board and alight at stops less than five miles apart as the crow flies.
Under proposed new arrangements operators would have to register local services they proposed to run with a registration authority.
A period of notice would be required before both the commencement and termination of any services.
The purpose of registration will be to provide a reasonable degree of certainty for the public that a service would run as expected.
Registration would be automatic, but failure to register or to run a service in accordance with the terms of registration would be an offence.
The consultation paper also suggests a new power to restrict a psv operator's licence to the running of services other than local services.
This would be involved where an operator had demonstrated he could not be trusted to provide safe and reliable local services.
Measures to control picking up and setting down of passengers to avoid traffic congestion problems are also proposed.
Comments on the proposals should be sent to Passenger Transport 1 Division, Room 517/23, Department of Transport, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1, by October 31. CM would also be interested to receive readers' comments on the proposals.