Reading Corporation's "Attempt to Gain Preference"
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AN objection by Reading Corporation Transport to -fares which Thames Valley Motor Services, Ltd., propose to apply to a new service 'from Reading to Woodley running through the Maiden Erlegh estate was an attempt by the Corporation to obtain a preferential position for themselves, said the chairman of the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners, Mr. H. I. Thom, in Reading last week.
Granting the Thames Valley application, the chairman said the Corporation seemed to assume that the fares should be calculated exactly in accordance with the mileage scale, but of course, such calculations were always done by all companies with various provisos. It would have been better if the company
had attached those provisos to their application in the present case, although not usually done in small applications.
" We see nothing else in this case but an attempt by the Corporation to induce the Traffic Commissioners to depart from their general practice and to require the company to ignore the provisos generally observed. Their object seems to be to obtain a preferential position as between Reading and Ramsbury Drive. They seek to get a situation in which the company will have to charge more between those points than they themselves charge. That we cannot regard as being acceptable in any way. Between two common points the fares of competing operators must be the same."