Micro 'in public interest'
Page 21
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
HAPPIER NEWS for Strathclyde is that its proposals to operate microbus services as an expt. -!Tient are in the public interest, the Scottish Traffic Commissioners have decided.
In a decision following a five-day public sitting the Commissioners have authorised the continuation of Glasgow City services operated on short-term licences since last summer for a further six months, despite heavy opposition from the Scottish Bus Group and taxi proprietors.
In one case, a service between Partick Interchange and Gartnavel Hospital, the Commissioners have granted a full term licence because they feel there are no convincing arguments against such a grant.
The SBG companies, Central Scottish, Midland Scottish, and Eastern Scottish argued that Strathclyde was responsible for transport co-ordination, yet had failed to consult with them.
The PTE was seeking to impose new features on top of existing services which were fundamentally satisfactory and often under-used.
The proposed services were unnecessary and would cost public money, either in themselves or by abstraction, and would put existing services at risk.
The taxi associations argued that their trade was bound to be damaged and the service to the public might have to be restricted.
The commissioners said they took the point that the application was mainly experimental.
Increased competition with taxis, whatever the impact on Individual taxi owners, was not against the public interest. Neither was it against the public interest for bus operators to innovate and try and recover some of the traffic lost in the past to taxis.