Manchester's Rapid Transit may get the go-ahead
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THE PROBABILITY that the Manchester Rapid Transit scheme will prove worth implementing; the possibility that Diala-Bus could be a worthwhile project; the need for bus assistance if city services are not to grind to a halt; and the prospects for differential fares to make peak passengers pay their way—these were among the intriguing aspects of public transport in the North West that were dealt with in a frank and revealing paper presented by the director of operations and engineering of the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive on Wednesday. The director, Mr G. G. Harding was addressing delegates at the annual conference of the Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association in Aviemore.
Having explained how the PTE for South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire had grown from three people in a small office in Manchester with a desk, a chair, a carpet, a telephone and a coffee table, at the beginning of September last year, into a controlling body which still numbers less than 16 people ("we want a structure which is lean and hungry"), Mr Harding said the first major decision which the Executive faced was whether or not to join a National Federation. After weighing the pros and cons the PTE had decided that any Federation it was prepared to join would lay down only certain minimum standards of wages, minimum holiday entitlement, national holidays, rates of overtime pay and so on, and Mr Harding acknowledged that some of the Executive's operating friends did not think this decision in the best interests of the industry as a whole.
The second major decision lay in recommending to the PTA a course of action once the financial position of the three divisions (set up by the PTE) had been determined. With an annual income of over £20m it was felt that reserves of about 10 per cent were necessary, yet the total reserve at take-over proved to be only £500,000. It was decided to try to build this up within a reasonable number of years; also a sum of £2.5m a year was needed to make income balance expenditure during 1970. The PTA had decided to increase revenue by higher fares, as recommended by the PTE, rather than by rate precept and despite opposition by 88 objectors an increase equivalent to £2.6m of the £2.8m applied for had been granted by the North Western Traffic Commissioners. It was the biggest fares application ever made, said Mr Harding, the equivalent of hearing applications by 11 municipal undertakings at one sitting. The new fares included an off-peak discount of 3d on most tickets; looked at another way, this was a peak-travel surcharge of 3d, a proposal in accordance with the 'July 1968 MoT recommendation for London, where it was suggested that fares should be related to the cost of providing services. Past increases had caused loss of off-peak traffic, and Mr Harding said that it seemed to him that if people would not voluntarily work staggered hours they must expect to pay the price of not doing so. Of course, they might decide not to travel by bus at all and this might enable peak bus numbers to be reduced, a move which could result in substantial economies.
Turning to fleet livery, the speaker said it was felt that "a bus can be considered a package in which we sell rides"; the PTE therefore followed manufacturers' approach to packaging and engaged consultants —who showed 24 model buses, in groups of four at a time painted in a wide variety of colours and schemes, to groups of bus users of different ages and backgrounds. These people were asked to exclude the three they liked least until, by exclusion, they had eventually rejected all but two buses. Interestingly, all the groups finally chose the same two buses, and it was from this that the fleet livery of orange and white was selected.
The information about bus user preferences which emerged from this study has led the PTE to consider future quick and cheap exercises of this sort on other lines of development affecting passengers.
Depot requirements were another aspect which had been referred to consultants, said Mr Harding, and operational research showed that shutting more than one large garage in the central area would save £20,000 a year by the reduction of light mileage.
Promising proposition
The PTE had taken a new look at the proposals for a Rapid Transit rail line in Manchester, and had been able to take a unique view representing bus and rail operations over a wide area. The Executive felt that they could not build a line if it was likely that the result would be "a .E60m machine that would spend its life producing large cash losses". Fortunately, said the speaker, he did not think this would occur. At this stage of the investigation it seemed that the Rapid Transit might show a social benefit as compared with alternatives and that it could be run without loss at an acceptable fare.
A new form of railway which interested the PTE was the URBA which was a light, silent monorail that had a higher capacity than a bus in terms of passengers per hour; it was a form of hovercraft.
As to buses, Mr Harding believed it to be a pressing necessity to produce a route system for the area by combining PTE services with those of joint operators in an optimum way. He added: "If buses are to have the chance to fulfil the task they can perform better than any other form of public transport, then the introduction of large-scale bus priority lanes and any other means of ensuring that buses can provide a reliable service must be explored. These comments must be associated with those which I made earlier with regard to the introduction of a peak hour surcharge.
"It is only a matter of time before City congestion reaches a point where, without the provision of priority schemes and other facilities, buses will not be able to move with sufficient reliability to provide what might be called a service. It will, therefore, be essential fairly soon for buses to be given assistance in order to move satisfactorily and play a vital part in the life of a city.
"As I see it, even if a peak hour surcharge does cause an increase in the rate at which peak 'hour congestion builds up, it effectively results in nothing more than bringing forward the date on which assistance will be necessary which will enable buses to provide any real service."
Mr Harding said that negotiation with NBC and independent companies did not seem too difficult a problem, but when comparing operating costs the PTE would wish to have these in costs per hour for peak and off-peak separately and not in terms of costs per mile. The latter gave an unrealistic advantage in faVour of the rural operator.
On scheduling, the speaker felt that the arguments against computers were not necessarily valid, since at times of substantial change the cost of having to wait for the most efficient manual scheduling could far outweigh the cost of introducing computerized schedules. In any case, computers could quickly do the majority, leaving the few really difficult schedules to be completed manually.
Referring to the new Trans-Lanes Express service operated by radio-controlled coaches over a 31-mile route linking Bolton and Stockport, Mr Harding said it appeared likely to cover its costs within a month of its inception, and more services of this and other types would be introduced in the future. Use of radio, and the linking of