Lambs to slaughter
Page 10
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;URRENT public policy will inevitably mean a "real and damaging" lecline in bus services in the remoter areas, and passengers are joing to suffer, Lord Shepherd, chairman of the National Bus ComJuly, told the Association of District Councils' Transport Confertrice in Llandudno.
Lord Shepherd said the NBC aces the twin pressures of a rery severe financial target, and change in framework of corn)etition for local bus services. his would end the NBC's ability o cross-subsidise the weaker outes with profits from the ftronger ones, The NBC was not afraid of :ompetition, he said. "We were ;et free by the 1980 Transport kct to use commercial judgment n the operation of express :oach services. We rose to the :hallenge presented by the new kct, and the efforts of National xpress have not only been ;uccessful in increasing pas:enger volume, but they have ilso resulted in a significant inancial contribution to keep iome local bus services running services which, paradoxically, :ould be threatened by another :lause of the same Act.
"Frequently this system pro-. luced more money to support ass making services, than :ounty council revenue routes in the area.
support," he continued. A recent study in the Taunton area had shown that for every £1 of county support, a further .E3 was being contributed from the surpluses on the more profitable Lord Shepherd explained that recent decisions by the former Transport Secretary, and by the Traffic Commissioners, had bought the whole question of the "public interest" into focus.
Whereas, in the past, the overall implications of a new service had been considered, recent decisions indicated that it would be impossible for objectors to object at hearings that any new application would be against the public interest.
"The question of potential revenue loss by an existing operator arising from competition on one part of his network seems to be being regarded on its own as irrelevant to the fate of other routes."