Coaches comply with 70mph limit
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THERE ARE signs that coach drivers are complying more with the 70mph speed limit on motorways, Junior Transport Minister Michael Spicer has told MPs.
Quizzed by Tory backbencher Terrence Higgins about the anxieties many MPs have about speeding coaches, Spicer said that they always had to be vigilant about exceeding speed limits. But during the past year, there have been signs of greater compliance with limits, and it was a matter for continual vigilance by police.
The Bus and Coach Council has issued its own code of practice and the Government hopes the industry would comply with it.
Mr Spicer told MPs that since October 1980 more than 900 new long-distance coach services had been registered, of which some 700 were still running.
There was a 20 per cent increase in the number of allyear services.
Passengers of National Bus Company's National Express services have increased by about 50 per cent since 1980. The Government believes that the independent operators must have increased their number of passengers by an even greater figure.
In real terms, fares have been generally reduced since 1980 between 15-40 per cent and on some routes they were lower than five years ago.