NBC sell off plea
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by Alan Millar
A POWERFUL appeal for the National Bus Company to be privatised intact is contained in its annual report published this week.
Commenting on results which show that NBC held its operating profit level last year at 1983's 46m and its operating costs rose by 6.7 per cent to £1.19 per mile, chairman Robert Brook said: "I am proud of what we have made of it [NBC], and confident that we could do even better, particularly if we were freed from the purse strings and trammels of central Government control.
"We feel towards the NBC as a live heritage which should not lightly be broken apart," he added.
Although NBC is concerned about the possible effects of the loss of crosssubsidy when the Transport Bill becomes law, Mr Brook's report sets out a combative role for NBC in the competitive environment ahead.
"We gladly accept the principles of deregulation, competition and pruning of subsidies, which arc enshrined in the Bill. We are highly competitive . . . and devote at least twice as much in cross-subsidy as we receive in direct subsidies from county councils," he said.
But NBC warns that in anticipation of competition arising on its viable routes, its managers will enter the deregulated environment with plans to run substantially fewer supported services than they do now.
The burden for financing those routes will rest squarely with the county councils.
The report reveals that NBC is already preparing for competition by severing sonic of the direct ties between its corporate management and the subsidiary companies.
By the end of next year, NBC will act much more as a financial holding company for its subsidiaries rather than provide the level of central management which applies now. "This should prepare the subsidiaries for the new environment without inhibiting such fair competition as can he sustained before deregulation."
But it has added an appeal for the Government to apply the same rules to the running of local authority bus undertakings and for independent operators to be required to meet the same standards of maintenance as the public sector.
NBC is clearly looking for a similar privatisation deal to that won last week by British Gas, with it being kept intact and not broken into the smaller units the Government wants.
It gives nothing specific away in the report, but states that "hasty decisions" could make it less easy to get the highest possible price for the disposal of NBC.
This comes as Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley has appointed merchant banker Price Waterhouse on NBC privatisation.
Last year's trading figures were depressed by the miners' strike, which had a particularly hard impact upon the business for its Northern England and South Wales subsidiaries.
• Eastern National is reducing staffing levels at its Chelmsford head office and some of its depots and area offices in a bid to make it more able to meet the challenge of deregulation in 1986.
The changes will virtually eliminate the central traffic department, with its functions being devoted to six operational districts with their own managers.
The central workshop has already become a separate accountable unit trading as Eastern National Engineering.
• National Express is involving its passengers in celebrating the success of its Rapide luxury coach services. Souvenirs and free tickets will be presented this week to the 50,000th passenger to use the Humberside Rapide.
The Swansea Rapide will soon carry its 250,000th passenger this week, according to the company's computerised ticket system.
Rapide custom is expected to continue to rise from one million passengers a year to three million during the next year.