Area Boards Suggested

21st September 1962, Page 11

21st September 1962

Page 11

Page 11, 21st September 1962 — Area Boards Suggested

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IFFFRENCES of opinion on the relative merits of large and small nunicipal bus undertakings were among he points brought out in the discussions

m the papers read at last week's Munici)al Passenger Transport Association 1.1.'onferencc at Brighton.

Mi. W. M. Hall, general manager, Liverpool, referred to the subject in his ?residential address, stating that he was n favour of area transport boards in the nore populous regions and suggested :hat a Merseyside board would enable ;mproved facilities to be given. Mr. G. A. Cherry, general manager, Birkenhead. in proposing a vote of thanks, spoke highly of Mr. Hall's ability and unassuming manner, but noted that he had not claimed a decrease in working costs for a Merseyside transport board. His impression was that larger Units had higher operating costs.

In the discussion on the paper by Mr. I. C. Franklin, "What cats we do to stay in business?", Alderman R. Weir, chairman. Black burn, wondered whether many of the economics for which the industry was looking would already have been achieved if the area schemes proposed in 1948 had been put into effect. Mr. J. Roslron, general manager, GrimsbyCleethorpes, spoke of the economies that had resulted from the formation Of his undertaking, which has a fleet of 102 buses, in place of the separate Grimsby and Cleethorpes municipal systems. He considered that much greater use could be made of one-man-operated buses. Together with economies resulting from a route reorganization following the trolleybus abandonment, these policies had enabled his undertaking to maintain the same fares in a period when there had been six wage increases.

1 he same theme also appeared in the discussion on Mr. E. R. L. Fitzpayne's paper "Wages and earnings in the municipal passenger transport industry." Mr. Fitzpayne himself, in summarizing his paper, referred to the fact that many smaller undertakings had a much lower cost per mile than applied in Glasgow or London.

M r. W. M. Little, general manager, Edinburgh, felt that there was no merit in size and that the efficiency of some of the small undertakings was such as to make it difficult for the larger ones to keep in line. He felt that one of the reasons was the reluctance to employ enough staff to disperse the responsibility. If insufficient staff of a grade capable of pinning down detail economies were employed,

efficiency dropped. Alderman 3. Whitaker, vice-chairman, Todmorden, felt that the smaller local authority had flexibility and the management was enabled to see the whole of the undertaking in a way that was impossible when it became too big.

Mr. N. Morton, general manager, Sunderland. drew attention to the fact that the working expenses at Sunderland were 10d. per mile less than in London, and stated that maintenance costs were less than half those of the L.T.E. He said that large-scale organization did not necessarily mean efficiency—nor, on the other hand, did fragmentation. Hc felt that a transport monopoly must be under public control through elected representatives, and this did not apply to private or B.T.C.-owned concerns or to the Mileage Between Overhauls

Mr. Franklin's suggestion that a 300,000-mile overhaul life for all vehicle units could. with two seven-year Certificates of Fitness, issued in succession, lead to the need for only one major overhaul during a I4-year vehicle life was the subject of some discussion. Mr. Pulfrey, general manager. Hull, mentioned that his undertaking had quite a number of vehicles that had covered 500,000 miles with a promise of being able to cover more. He had recently been able to obtain four-year Certificates of Fitness for 12-year-old vehicles.

Mr. T. P. O'Donnell, general manager. Ashton-under-Lyne, pointed out that in many fleets, including that of his own undertaking. a mileage of 300,000 represented a 10-year life. He wondered whether Certificates of Fitness could be issued on a mileage basis, although he realized that it would be difficult to prevent possible abuses.

Mr. J. W. Wicks, works manager (road services) of the London Transport Executive, stated that annual mileages of L.T.E. vehicles varied between 42,000 and 75,000. He felt that the life of different types of vehicle unit was bound to differ appreciably: he could not foresee a vehicle in which all units would become due for overhaul at the sante mileage. .

Coventry Overtime Ban nN Sunday, busmen of Coventry Cor

poration started a seven-day overtime ban because the Corporation had rejected a bonus scheme which they estimated would cost in the region of £94.000 a year.