First Coach-air Licence Granted in North-west Review After Year
Page 46
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE first licence for a north western operator to provide inclusive 1 coach-air tours was granted at Manchester, last week. Happiway Tours (Manchester). Ltd., were granted the facility to operate tours from East Street, Manchester, next year, by the North Western Traffic Commissioners. A review of the activity will be made after one year, when the licence expires.
Mr. J. Booth, for Happiways, said that the company also wanted a series of feeder services from Rochdale, Nelson, Preston and Liverpool, to connect with the coach-air facilities. In all cases passengers would fly from Ringway. Airport. Operation would be from April-October, 1961.
When it was first heard in April. the application was opposed by four excursion and tours operators and the British Transport Commission. Five travel agents, from Liverpool, Rochdale• and Oldham, stated then that they had difficulty in persuading passengers to travel to London for flights to the Continent.
After being told that they could not fly from Manchester, many passengers did not go at all, it was stated. There
had also been complaints regarding existing public transport facilities into Manchester, where many tours originated, and witnesses objected to wasting time by travel to London and carrying luggage on public vehicles.
New feeder services were required, said Mr. I. Beaumont, publicity manager of Happiways, because many people living outside the city found it difficult to join a tour starting early in the morning.
Mr. Eric Frost, representing British Railways, said that the feeder services would abstract traffic from them. Adequate rail amenities were available early in the morning, he said. Similar evidence was given by Mr. G. Dawes, traffic assistant of Ribble Motor Services, Ltd., who claimed that passengers travelling on express routes should be carried by the existing operators.
For Batty-Holt Touring Services, Ltd., and W. Robinson and Sons (Great Harwood), Ltd., Mr. P. Kershaw observed that . people who would be carried on these tours must be travelling with other operators at present. A grant would result in abstraction from -them. Mr. G. H. P. Beames, for the B.T.C., pointed out that a Bill, concerned with licensing of air transport, was now before Parliament. If this came into law the whole system might be altered.
Mr. Booth submitted that day-to-day operation must be governed by the existing law, possible future licensing should be ignored. The feeder services had been introduced only to facilitate matters, the company's real interest was in transporting passengers from Manchester direct to the Continent. The Road Traffic. Acts should not he allowed to act as a brake to new types of transport.
Granting the application, Mr. F. Williamson, chairman, said that he considered foreign-extended-tours Operators were entitled to this new form of coachair operation.
36% MORE GOODS VEHICLES
THE number of goods vehicles put on the roads for the first time in the first quarter of this year was nearly 36 per cent, higher than in the comparable period of 1959. This is revealed by figures issued by the Ministry of Transport.
A total of 22,667 goods vehicles newly registered in March brought the aggregate for the quarter to 61,363 compared with 45,232 in January-March, 1959.
Details of March registrations appear in the accompanying table.
U.T ;A. Busmen Work to Rule
AWORK-TO-RULE protest was started on Monday by 2,000 drivers and .conductors employed by the Ulster Transport Authority. The action was called for by the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union and the Ulster Transport and Allied Operatives' Union following the rejection, by the busmen, of a one-man operation scheme anda wages offer of 10s. 6d. a week by the Authority.
The U.T.A. stated that the offer 'Made by them. was similar to that accepted in Great Britain by the unions representing thestaffs of British provincial bus undertakings. "The trade unions seek to have the -increased wages and reduced -hours without any commitments as to One-man buses. but to this the Authority is Unable to agree," said a spokesman of the U.T.A.
• BUSES COVER ROYAL
HIGHLAND SHOW N extensive bus service to cover
the Royal Highland Show, held for the first time at the new permanent site just outside Edinburgh, was .provided by Scottish Omnibuses, Ltd. From Clyde Street bus station, buses started at 7.15 a.m. to take out catering and other workers. Services continued every few minutes throughout the day and evening. Evening excursions were also• run from Glasgow and many of the main centres in central Scotland.
Day-long excursions were run from the Borders and the northof Scotland, •and shuttle services were laid on between the main Edinburgh railheads. The Highland Show authorities provided a special bus station near the main entry to the showground, MEDWAY BRIDGE CONTRACT WORK is to start shortly on a concrete Yv bridge to carry the Medway Towns' motor road over the River Medway. A contract amounting to £2,325,931 has been placed by the Minister of Transport for the work, whichis expected to occupy two and a half years.
Construction of the M2 motorway itself, which will take less time to 'complete, will start later.. When completed the new road, 25 miles in length, will leave A2 on the London side of Strood and by-pass Rochester. Chatham, Sittingbourne and Faversham.
EAST COAST MOTORWAY? HE Government would consider any I proposals for a motorway to serve the east coast, but facts and figures relating to present and future traffic would have to be obtained to support a scheme of this kind, Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, said this at Newcastle upon Tyne last week.
. Britain's road system would be progressively developed, and although the present motorway plan was not rigid, any proposed additions would need to. be fully investigated, he added. •