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Merseyside report SELNEC PTE confirms deficit forecast plans city

28th September 1973
Page 36
Page 36, 28th September 1973 — Merseyside report SELNEC PTE confirms deficit forecast plans city
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• The forecast made in Merseyside Passenger , Transport Authority's annual report for 1971 that that year was an exceptionally good year and that no similar outcome should be expected in the near future has been confirmed in the Authority's annual report for 1972 published last week. The year ended in a net deficit of £253,000 compared with a net surplus of £785,000 for the previous year.

Inflation, says the report, was even more serious than had been anticipated; without remedial action operations would become progressively more and more unremunerative In the absence of Government subsidy either fares or the precept had to meet the rapidly rising costs. In addition, the Government's freeze action compelled the Authority to defer its decision to increase fares.

There were signs that the transport token scheme developed jointly by Merseyside and SELNEC PTEs was gaining acceptance over a very wide area, enabling local authorities who would otherwise be unable to offer concessionary travel schemes to do so. The scheme initially produced problems of scale and a separate company, National Transport Tokens Ltd, was f,ormed to market travel tokens throughout England and Wales.

For three months one of the two experimental electric Crompton Leyland buses was operated on a city centre route. Although,as expected, the environmental attributes were very attractive, the vehicle was found to be very limited with a top speed of about 25 mph and a range of about 35-40 miles when fully laden. The low capacity was generally unable to cope with the lunchtime peak demand even though the vehicle operated an extra schedule service. In addition, the vehicle's batteries had an expected life of 60,000 miles compared to the 200,000-mile life of a diesel engine of equivalent cost A total of 131 new buses, all fitted with radio, were delivered to the Authority during the year: 120 vehicles were withdrawn.

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Organisations: Transport Authority

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