Age of the train?
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Year of the coach!
DRAMATIC cuts in coach fares are a direct result of competition in the "year of the coach", Transport Secretary Norman Fowler told the Combined Universities Conservative Conference at Birmingham.
Mr Fowler described the "unprecedented growth in coach services" in the wake of the 1980 Transport Act. He said that the comprehensive reforms of bus licensing laws had resulted in new competition and new services.
The competition in turn had meant increased passenger demands and reduced fares, which benefited both the publicly owned National Express and the privately owned British Coachways and other private operators.
De-regulation, he said, had created new employment but, above all, has helped the customer as, according to Mr Fowler, "not only have there' been new services but prices have actually come down".
He said that central to the approach of the Government is a belief that the public interest is best served by a minimum of State interference and a maximum of free competition. The customer should come first, he said, and not the interests of groups pleading special cases.
The Government, he asserted, was determined to cut out unnecessary restrictions and controls.