MacBrayne Seeks Independence of Subsidy : Manchester's 2d.
Page 36
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
APPLYING to the Scottish Licensing Authority last week for higher .fares, David MacBrayne, Ltd., declared that although the Government guaranteed the concern a 4 per cent. profit whatever the deficit incurred, it preferred to make the bus undertaking stand on its own feet. The annual subsidy granted the company had recently been increased to £360,000 a year, of which the mail contracts held totalled some £10,000 a year.
Since 1939, it was stated, fares had increased by 20 per cent. whilst costs had .gone up by 155 per cent. The increase proposedld. in the shilling for single fares and 10 per cent, for returns—would bring fares up to 30 per cent. above pre-war.. The last advance in fares, granted in January, 1951, had produced only an .8 per cent, increase in revenue.
Inverness County Council, objecting to the proposals, declared that a further increase in fares would cause hardship in the crofting areas. The population was largely in the lower-income group, and higher rates would have an effect on the depopulation problem.
Manchester Corporation has now, received permission to introduce the 2d. minimum fare refused last year.
West Bridgford Urban District Coun
ell, which has an application for higher charges before the Licensing Authority, may have to make a new application. Since the proposals now being considered were heard, costs had continued to. rise and another approach to the Authority is being considered.
The Economic Bus CO., Ltd., Sunderland, is to make its second application for fares variations in 14 months. The last increase, the first ever applied for by the concern in its 27 years of operation, was granted on Budget day.
Cores Iompair Eireann, the nationalized Irish-transpert system, is considering introducinghigher fares on July 1, following the increase in fuel costs imposed in the Irish Budget.
Although new charges had been in operation for six months of the last financial year, the general manager of Eull Corporation, Mr. G. H. Pulfrey, declared in his annual report that further fares modifications were inevitable. " Efforts made to rectify the financial position. have been too little and too late" he stated. He has recommended that an application be made. to put fares on a realistic basis, compared with the prices of other commodities, with a view not only to meeting the increased costs, but to building up a reserve.
Messrs. Wye Valley Motors, Hereford, have applied for higher rates on 15 services in the West Midland Traffic Area. Single, workmen's and ordinary return fares will go up by id. to 4d. if the application succeeds, . the lower figure applying to tickets now costing from Id. to 41d., and the higher one to those between 3s. and 3s. 11 d. It is also proposed that weekly, season and special concession 'tickets should go up by 10 per cent.