Dereg dust up
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II The Government has refused to intervene in the bus war that has broken out in Glasgow ahead of deregulation.
The city's streets have been suffering severe congestion since Strathclyde Buses — owned by the regional council — and Scottish Bus Group subsidiaries Kelvin Scottish and Clydeside Scottish, increased their operation in the run-up to 'D-Day' on October 26.
New Junior Transport Minister Lord lirabazon of Tam told peers in the Lords last week that it was up to Strathclyde Regional Council to apply to the Traffic Commissioner to have the services more regulated if they were concerned about possible congestion.
Congestion
Labour peer Lord Carmichael said that there was "incredible congestion" in the city centre with up to three kilometres (two miles) of tailbacks, making the main roads virtually unavailable to ordinary traffic.
Another Labour peer, Lord Underhill, claimed 350 buses an hour were using Renfield Street.
Lord Brabazon, however, insisted it was up to Strathclyde to take action, although he promised that if Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive was using its financial muscle to try and swamp the competition, then the Government and the Office of Fair Trading would take action.
The Chairman of Strathclyde Regional Council's Highways and Transportation Committee, Malcolm Waugh, has described the situation as "utter chaos", and one which is likely to get worse with a number of SBG minibuses due to go into service after deregulation.
Waugh says that there is no demand for so many buses. "The Traffic Commissioners have emergency powers under the Act to give bus companies 24 hours to reduce the number of services, if they agreed it was necessary. I want the operators to cut them voluntarily, but if they don't I will take this further".
The congestion has also sparked off a row between Strathclyde Buses and the Scottish Bus Group. John Churchill, financial director of Strathclyde Buses, claims the extra vehicles put on by SBG have caused the problem.
Churchill says that Strathclyde has cut its fleet by 11% from 849 to 740, but that SBG has increased its presence from four to 100 vehicles.
Same service
CI At the recent Conservative Party Conference, Transport Secretary John Moore reported that de-regulation was providing virtually the same level of services for much lower costs.
He quoted Lancashire County Council, where the level of subsidy has been slashed from 28 million a year to just over 22.5 million.
Moore also singled out Highland Regional Council in Scotland, Cumbria and Clwyd where considerable savings had been achieved.
The Department of Transport was unable to say last week what the latest total of savings on subsidies was at this stage, although a spokesman pointed out that in some authorities savings of up to a third were being achieved.