Daily London-Yorkshire coach express opposed
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by CM reporter PROPOSALS to operate daily express coach services between the east coast of Yorkshire and London by National Travel (North East) Ltd were strongly opposed by British Rail and Wallace Arnold Tours Ltd before the Yorkshire traffic commissioner at Leeds on April 7.
National were seeking to operate two routes; the first from Bridlington, picking up at Filey, Scarborough, Malton, York, Selby, and Doncaster; the second from Scarborough picking up at Filey, Bridlington, Hull, Howden, Goole, Thorne and Doncaster.
If the applications were granted, licences authorising weekend operation from Scarborough and Bridlington would be surrendered and the YorkDoncaster section of the present Felling-London service would no longer be operated thus speeding up that particular service.
For National, Mr Peter Fingret said that since the weekend services had been granted in 1974, it had become obvious there was a demand for a daily facility. The applications would also enable passengers to join a London service at Malton and Selby for the first time. These points could be conveniently served by the proposed services and there was evidence of demand for a direct facility.
Mrs Shirley Claire, assistant manager of D. M. Rimmington and Co Ltd, National's Selby booking agent, said her clients often complained about not being able to join the London coach at Selby. Last year, her company booked 57 passengers on the London services the majority of whom made their own way to Doncaster to join the services.
More people were travelling to London by coach than in the past because the service was cheaper than rail and it had been considerably speeded up since the opening of motorways. The development of a new coalfield in the area would lead to a large increase in population and a daily service to London would be ideal.
Questioned by Mr J. A. Backhouse, objecting for British Rail, Mrs Claire agreed there was a good rail service between Selby and London.
Mr Backhouse said rail cards were now available to pensioners at an annual cost of £6 which allowed them to travel on any day of the week throughout the year at half fare. This meant that the rail fares to London for this class of traffic were comparable with those of National.
Wallace Arnold's objection is based on the possible use of the proposed services to offer packaged holiday facilities.
After hearing public evidence concerning the difficulty of getting to Doncaster to join the existing coach service the commissioners adjourned the hearing until a date to be fixed.