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CTAs COULD BE THREAT TO RURAL BUS SERVICES
Page 64
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WARNING that the setting up of Conurbation Transport Authorities could lead to fewer rural bus services was given to the Government last week by Mr. Geoffrey Wilson (Tory, Truro).
He said that the big bus companies, whether wholly owned by a holding company or 50 per cent owned, all had a considerable number of uneconomic local rural services which they crosssubsidized from profits made in their urban services.
If the Minister of Transport took away from the holding companies the profitable routes in the towns and placed them under CTA control, it seemed clear that there would not be the profits available to cross-subsidize rural services.
The rural communities and their local authorities would not be able to afford to pay large sums of money to subsidize rural bus services, and the services would deteriorate instead of improve, added Mr. Wilson.
He was opening a Commons debate about the South West, during which transport proved to be a big talking point.
Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Labour, Exeter) called it "the be-all and end-all", and said she was disturbed about the paragraph in the Transport White Paper concerning bus services and the maintenance of transport services in local authority areas.
If it was to be left to local authorities to subsidize their transport facilities, bus and train services would be cut down enormously.