£380,000 for elderly key to fares rise
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AN increase in municipal transport fares in
Glasgow may be avoided if the corporation is willing to pay from the rates the cost of the concession ticket to elderly people—£380,000 a year.
The decision that the wage freeze for municipal transport workers will end from the first full pay day after January 14 will affect 5,000 transport workers in Glasgow—and cost £180,000 in a full year.
Dlr. William Lee, transport convener, said: "This is just too heavy a burden for us to pay. We have been doing fine and had hoped we could peg fares, but if there is no help an increase seems almost inevitable.
"An approach has already been made to the finance committee suggesting that the corporation pays the cost of the concession tickets. After all, it is the city which is giving this concession. Why should the transport department bear the cost? In Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh the cost is met from the rates. Glasgow is the only city in Scotland which does not help its transport department".
City treasurer Tom Duncan is known to be sympathetic to the claim. Other members of the corporation also take the view that increased fares would be too heavy a burden for suburban dwellers.
The January 14 wage increase (9s. 3d. a week) will cost Nottingham City Transport Department an extra 458,500 a year. No decision on fare increases has been taken but the department's general manager Mr. John Wake said: "It certainly advances the day for the next fares application".
Nottingham's fares last rose in October 1965. In the first quarter of this financial year, the department made a profit of £26,203. All the money was set aside for the purchase of new vehicles.