Year of Unfulfilled Expectations for P.T.A.
Page 35
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A T last week's annual general meeting PI. of the Public Transport Association at Eastbourne, the chairman, Mr. T. R. Williams, regretted that the past year had been one of unfulfilled expectations for the industry. It had been led to hope that at last it would be afforded some relief from its main problems of rising costs—the burdens of the inequitable fuel tax and Excise duty licences, and irksome and archaic restrictions.
He welcomed the reduction in p.s.v. licence fees, but deplored the general impression conveyed to the travelling public that this was an adequate solution to the problem of uneconomic rural services. In fact, this was virtually untouched.
Operators were deeply resentful at being held responsible in the public mind for drastic reductions in passenger services when the responsibility rested squarely upon the Government, by their failure to abolish the fuel tax.
The industry was at loss to understand why its plea that coaches and buses should be placed on complete equality as regards permitted speeds outside-built-up areas should have been so little' regarded. The size, weight and dimensions of p.s.v.s were as stringently regulated now as 30 years ago, but their performance of today could not be compared with the conditions then existing. Now the mechanical efficiency, roadworthiness, performance and safety of these vehicles were without equal.
A report on the Association's conference appears on pages 474-475.
GOOD TURN MISFIRES
A NUNEATON coach driver's good turn for passengers carried by a rival firm's coach which broke down, led to a prosecution at Coleshill last week.
For carrying' excess passengers in a coach, Joseph Lloyd and Sons, Ltd., Nuneaton, were fined £1, The driver. Harold Cecil Moss, was fined .E2 for aiding and abetting. Both pleaded guilty.
Defending, Mr. W. Hibbs said that a coach driven by Moss was on its way to a football match in Birmingham when it picked up 15 passengers being carried to the same match by a rival firm's coach which had broken down.
The coach was stopped by a police officer at Castle Bromwich. Fifteen passengers were standing and all 35 seats were occupied.
CO-ORDINATION 'CALL
AMEMORANDUM published by the Northern Ireland Branch Railway Society calls for the co-ordination of rail and road services. It complains of a bias against the railways by the Ulster Transport Authority and the Government, and states that a system of bus routes which duplicates the railways has been built up. It is recommended that road services should either feed into the railways or be employed where no railways exist.