Bigger Buses Needed
Page 31
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE need for bigger buses was referred to by Mr. John Spencer Wills, chairman, at the annual general meeting of East Yorkshire Motor Services, Ltd. He said: "We have several plans for rolling stock replacement over the next two years, but, like many others, we find ourselves in difficulty as a result of the long delay of the Ministry of Transport in revising the British Statutory Regulations governing length and width of public service vehicles to accord with the European standards. These arc standards to which our Government was a party in the Geneva Conference of 1949.
"No serious argument against the adoption of the general European standard appears to be raised, yet the official word to proceed is not given. What is ordered now and delivered in 1962 is likely to be stilt in use in 1975. May we not be given some official assurance that we can safely order our new buses and coaches to the dimensions which
have long been customary across the Channel?
"Our only alternative is to commit ourselves to the perpetuation of the lessefficient type of the past. In any event the change to the new types can be made only gradually, being spread probably over as much as a decade and a half."
On the problem of rural services, Mr. Wills said that East Yorks maintained a large number of unremunerative services, particularly in rural districts and, in connection with other bus operators, they looked not for the complications of subsidy, but for relief from special taxation.
On the question of matching fares and costs, Mr. Wills said to add still more to the wage bill would be to force another general increase in fares, and the risks and disadvantages of that should be obvious.
During the year, he said, there had been a further modest recovery from the extremely low ebb of three years ago.