33 Councils Fight Scottish Bus Companies on Fares
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CLAIMING that Scottish Omnibuses, Ltd., and its associated companies, Western S.M.T. Co., Ltd., Central S.M.T. Co., Ltd., W. Alexander and Sons, Ltd., and David Lawson and Sons, Ltd., had sufficient revenue before they applied for higher fares and that additional profits were required to make good losses in other branches of the British Transport Commission, 33 local authorities last week appealed against fares increases granted to the group last February.
In reply, representatives of Scottish Omnibuses declared that fares in Scotland were the lowest in Britain and that the proportion of unremunerative services operated was rising.
Opening the case for the appellants before an inspector of the Ministry of Transport, Mr.. J. G. Leechman, Q.C., in Edinburgh, Mr. J. 0. M. Hunter, QC., said that a measure of the public disquiet on this matter was indicated by the fact that over 50 Scottish local authorities were objecting to the new application for fares increases lodged by the Scottish Omnibuses group last week. The new applications propose the addition of id. to the lid. and 2d. fares—an item refused on the application which was the cause of the present appeal.
The Scottish Omnibuses group. said Mr. Hunter, was not classified as an entity, except as one of or part of the activities of the B.T.C. Investigations made by the appellants had, therefore, to be made by reference to the available accounts of the B.T.C.
Building a Reserve At the hearing of the last application, not one word of evidence had been produced to show the economic position of the individual companies. The only witness at the hearing, Mr. James Amos, had declared that the aim was to build up a reserve for future capital works, new garages, bus stations and amenities.
In reply, Mr. R. P. Morison, Q.C., representing Scottish Omnibuses, declared that Scottish .fares were the cheapest in the whole of the country. There had been a great number of anomalies in the fares structures of the associated companies, but these had been put right by the application to the Scottish Licensing Authority in 1950. There was was now something of a uniform fares structure throughout Scotland.
In 1951 the companies were faced with increasing costs amounting to £1.6m. An increase in fares had to be made and this, was based on the fares structure which had been created following the 1950 application. It was painted out to the Licensing Authority that if any local authority considered that anomalies still existed, Scottish Omnibuses were willing to discuss them.
. This attitude had been loyally observed by local authorities throughout Scotland, except Kirkintillach, which put up detailed objections to the fares proposed in the area. The matter would" be examined when the overall
I4 position of fares in Scotland had been considered.
The increased fares proposed in 1950 had been granted after a certain amount of opposition, and were reasonable in all circumstances. The application which was the subject of this appeal had not been granted in full, and the result had been that the companies' revenue had gone up by
between £250,000 and £300,000 a year less than was required.
Out of 417 services run by the companies in 1950, 190 (45 per cent.) were unremunerative, In 1952, 225 (over 50 per cent.) were unremunerative. In the operation 'of buses in Scotland, regard had to be paid to these unremunerative services when considering the fares to be charged.
[Other news of fares appears on page 706.]
"HELP LIGHTING AUTHORITIES" A RECOMMENDATION that local ./A lighting authorities be assisted from central funds is contained in the report of the Committee on Road Safety on the Gillingham bus accident, which occurred on December 4, 1951.
It also suggests that marching columns should ,proceed on the lefthand side of the road. If they marched on the right, traffic would be dislocated. "We think that the practice of driving on sidelights only in badly lighted roads is much too prevalent and we recommend that drivers should be encouraged . . . to use properly adjusted dipped headlights," states the committee.