Operating Aspects of PASSENGER TRANSPORT
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AUTOCAR SERVICES ALLEGES 1,500 IRREGULARITIES BY REDCAR CO.
South Eastern Commissioners Hold Inquiry IN the latter part of last week the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners, with Mr. Rowand Harker, K.C., as chairman, conducted an inquiry at Tunbridge Wells into the case of Redcar Services, Ltd., under section 74 of the Road Traffic Act.
Autocar Services, Ltd., of Reigate, alleged that Redcar Services, Ltd., of Tunbridge Wells, both concerns operating in the Tunbridge Wells district, committed a large number of irregularities in working its vehicles. These irregularities were claimed to have caused the Autocar undertaking difficulty in operating its own services on the routes covered by both concerns. In many cases Redcar buses were alleged to have run late (known as " hanging back"), whilst it was also stated that, in some instances, Redcar vehicles were overloaded, although this latter point was not proposed to be used in the proceedings.
The Autocar case was stated by Mr. Pox Andrews, who outlined the history of the matter since February last, when the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners decided that they could not accept certain alterations in services proposed by Redcar for a joint service with Autocar and renewed licences for the existing services.
There was not perfect agreement between the two concerns and, at the end of February, the Autocar company asked the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners to take steps to prevent the alleged irregular running by Redo:tr. In the main, the Autocar concern paid attention only to delays of three minutes or more by Redcar buses and contended that from February to July, inclusive, the Redcar concern committed 1,453 irregularities on five routes, only 28 being delays as small as two minutes. It was further alleged that the situation generally became worse as time went by. Numerous witnesses confirmed this.
On the second day of the proceedings, Mr. N. A. J. Cohen, for Redcar Services, Ltd., contended that the whole of the present system of operation was impracticable, and challenged the accuracy of certain times of Redcar buses recorded by Autocar inspectors, some of the times being alleged to refer to the Autocar concern's own vehicles. Certain omissions of times and inaccuracies in recording destinations were also said to have been made.
It appeared that in certain cases the times of the two companies' buses had been confused.
For the defendant Mr. Cohen made counter-allegations. against Aritocar iServices, Ltd., maintaining that the company also committed a large number of irregularities in running its services..
The hearing was adjourned.