Rural Bus Problems
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T HIS might be a good time to revise I the law controlling bus services, without going back to "internecine competition ", suggested the Earl of Sandwich this week.
Speaking in the Lords the Earl asked if the Road Traffic Act of 1960 could be amended so as to enable persons owning small buses to test the need for public transport in rural areas through provisional licences granted by Traffic Commissioners.
Lord Chesham, joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, replied that the Commissioners already had power to grant short-term licences, and where a new service would take no traffic from existing services it was unlikely that such a licence, or even one for a full term, would be refused. To leave it to the discretion of operators of small buses to decide which. routes they wished to try would not be serving the public; part of their troubles with bus services was already due to the fact that insufficient people used them.
Lord Stonham pointed out that the total overall loss on rural buses amounted to about £15m. a year and said there was not likely to be much private competition for that kind of trade. It was vitally necessary in rural areas for the Government to implement the Jack Report proposals.