Cummins B-series trial
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THE FIRST Cummins B-Series engine to be installed in a bus in Europe has begun a sixmonth field trial with Coras lompair Eireann, the Irish semistate-owned transport company.
CIE's own staff installed the engine, a 5.88-litre, six-cylinder The co-ordinators had already expressed concern that registration with the Traffic Commissioners would delay passing information to the counties.
They would have too little time to arrange tenders for non-commercial routes between July 1986 and D-day on October 1. They were also warned by Terry Dean of Cheshire that there was "a serious danger of over-registration".
Gerry Lord of Bedfordshire said counties were in a quandary over their need to encourage as much competition as possible to reduce costs, but not to the extent that firms were drawn in and burnt their fingers, then withdrawing "leaving the counties with the odium".
He said he was looking forward to stronger competition for school contracts as well as stage services and warned: "Some independents are going to get a nasty shock in respect of their bread and butter work".
The conference heard that Atco favoured June 27, 1987 as "D-day".
They felt October was an unsuitable time to start deregulation, with preparation clashing with council holidays and work on school contracts.