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RAILWAYS V. MUNICIPALITIES AT NORTH-WESTERN AREA SITTINGS

28th April 1931, Page 62
28th April 1931
Page 62
Page 63
Page 62, 28th April 1931 — RAILWAYS V. MUNICIPALITIES AT NORTH-WESTERN AREA SITTINGS
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Details of the Traffic Commissioners' First Public Sitting in this Important Area THERE was acute rivalry between rail and road interests—particularly so far as municipally worked services are concerned—at the inaugural sitting of the North-western Area Traffic Commissioners, which opened at Manchester on April 20th under the chairmanship of Mr. William Chamberlain. This was evidenced in the almost wholesale list of objections which were submitted, virtually on the last day, by the Lon

don Midland and Scottish and the London and North-eastern Railway companies. These opposed almost every application made by the various municipalities in the area.

The Commissioners have before them 5,538 applications for public-service vehicle licences 800 applicritions for backing of road-service licences from 250 operators desirous of running inta or through the north-western area ; 9,100 applications for drivers' licences for public-service vehicles ; 6,000 applications for conductors' licences for publicservice vehicles. It was mentioned that in the nine counties there were 850 operators of public-service machines. Replying to a welcome by the Lord Mayor of Manchester (Aid. G. F. Titt), Mr. Chamberlain explained that the purpose of the Act was to promote a much fuller degree of co-operation: of all forms of passenger transport and to avoid all forms of wasteful competition. The aim would be to see that the needs of the whole area were met and that unnecessary services were eliminated. Where necessary fares would be fixed to prevent unfair competition.

At the outset 80 *applications to which no objections were made were disposed of, following which the municipal applications were tabled. These came from the corporations of Manchester, Bolton, Bury and Wigan, amongst others, and Mr. R. H. Adcock, Deputy Town Clerk of Manchester, alluded to the attack launched by the railway interests against municipal bus services, submitting "that the position we now have to meet is again to battle with the railway companies upon matters which have already been decided by Parliament and which, particularly, so far as Manchester is concerned, were fully considered on our application for powers last year."

The railways, he said, were asking for sanction to participate in services which the municipal authorities had been providing for considerable periods. It was for the Commissioners to decide whether they were entitled to do this.

Mr. R. Stuart Pilcher, general manager of the Manchester Corporation Transport Department, said that just as trams had developed a traffic of their own, so had motorbuses. Where buses were substituted for trams they in

creased traffic speed by about two miles an hour, and higher speeds might be secured on outlying routes.

Sir Walter Greaves-Lord, K.C., M.P., who appeared for the two interested railroad undertakings, said that they had no objection to local stage services of buses. What they did oppose were applications made by Manchester. Corporation and adjoining bodies for townto-town services. He said that in the Manchester commercial area alone L.M.S. passenger receipts had fallen from £10,758,000 in 1924 to £7,845,000 in 1930, a decrease of 27 per cent.

Mr. Ashton Davies, of the L.M.S. company, submitted that the whole task of linking up the network of towns in southeast Lancashire was railway work, when the railway was capable of giving adequate service.


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