Buses hit bad phase
Page 24
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
DANGERS face the bus industry following the removal of new bus grant, according to Confederation of British Road Passenger Transport (CPT) director-general Denis Quin.
Mr Quin was commenting on the draft order to phase out new bus grant which was considered by the Commons last week. He said that the final declaration from the Venice economic summit had called for a co-ordinated effort to reduce dependence on oil and make public transport a more attractive proposition for potential users.
But the phasing out of bus grant could not have come at a worst time, said Mr Quin.
Operators already had to live with passenger resistance to higher fares in the face of soaring inflation, and spending restraint were biting more deeply.
His view of the desirability of continuing bus grant has been backed by local authority associations and the Select Committee on Nationalised Industries which recommended in 1978 that bus grant should not be abolished but should continue indefinitely at the current rate of 50 per cent.
Mr Quin said that to remove the grant without replacement would only increase costs, reduce the competitiveness of public transport, and the industry would lose an important opportunity to promote energy. saving.