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Maidstone Partly Succeeds : Glasgow Not to Manchester Wants 2d. Minimum Pass Work ?
Page 50
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ON current charges Maidstone and District Motor Services, Ltd., was losing between £600-£700 a day, said Mr. M. A. B. King-Hamilton. representing the concern before the Southeastern Licensing Authority last week. In the post-war period, wages had increased by £362.000 and unless the application to raise fares was successful, the loss this year would amount to £221,781.
Objectors to the application referred to the reserve funds maintained by the company, and suggested that these should be drawn upon before fares be increased. Modified variations were granted by the Authority, permitting increases of id. and Id. on single fares, but retaining return tickets between Is. 3d. and 2s. which the company had sought to abolish. Other concession fares were also modified, but not to the extent desired.
Previously, the case of Hastings Tramways Co. had been heard, this being a subsidiary of the Maidstone concern. The increases sought for the tralleybus services operated by the undertaking would produce a balance of £35,937—based, the traffic manager stated, " on trends of declining traffic and sky-high rises in costs."
25 per cent. Increase A 25 per cent. increase in charges was sought, losses on unremunerative services amounting to 4.2d. per mile at present. Revenue had declined between March. 1950, and March, 1951, from £145,897 to £141,723; by next March it would become £136.500.
After the application of Ribble Motor Services, Ltd., for modified fares scales had been heard in the Northern Traffic Area last week, decision was given by both the Northern and Northwestern Licensing Authorities. The hearing before the North-western Authority was reported in "The Commercial Motor" dated June 15.
With certain minor exceptions, the modifications proposed have been granted and come ihto effect next Sunday. Ordinary return tickets up to 10d. have been abolished, the lid, one becomes Is and those over Is. remain unchanged. Other changes, concerning jointly operated services, have also been approved.
Mr. Horace Bottomley, general manager, said that even with the higher fares now proposed, the concern would be worse off than at present. As had been stated at the earlier hearing, a further application. would have to be made. The suggested changes were confined to return fares, those up to 5d. going up by Id.. from 6d.-10d. by 2d. and 11d, tickets by Id. Extra costs this year would amount to £260.000, and the proposed higher rates would increase revenue by £255.540. The Id. minimum rate available in Carlisle would be retained, but for a shorter journey than at present.
Another £285,000 a year expected to accrue from the charges put before the North-western Licensing Authority last week by North Western Road Car Co., Ltd. Closing the hearing, after promising a decision in about a fortnight, the Authority stated that it was clear that some increases would have to be made. The concern's case included reference to the exceptionally low rates available for children and workmen. This was he first application for all-round Increases since 1923, when North Western was formed.
Newcastle Corporation is to introduce revised charges on trolleybuses shortly, ministerial permission having been granted. The variations proposed have been accepted, apart from those affecting 4d., 5d. and 6d. tickets, which will go up by id. instead of Id. In all, 52 routes are concerned.
6d. Minimum Return
Keighley-West Yorkshire Services, Ltd., operated by West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., and Keighley Corporation, has also received authority to modify fares. Single tickets from lid.5id. go up by id., and over 6d. by Id. Some Id. fares are retained. Return rates vary by from Id.-3d., the minimum being 6d.
Rawtenstall Corporation seeks to abolish ordinary returns and to introduce a ltd. minimum rate on 19 services.
Bury Corporation fares went up last Monday. The Id. ticket was replaced by a Id. and the children's Id. ticket abolished. The undertaking is expected to suffer a loss of £5,700 this year.
Manchester Corporation is now to apply
for a 2d. minimum ticket. An extra £500,000 a year is now required to meet rising costs, and all fares may have to go up by Id. Last year the undertaking made a profit of £22,000, which went towards reducing an £86,000 deficit.
Liverpool Corporation, expecting a deficit of £579,000 this year, has found that in the past eight weeks, costs have
risen by £110,000. An application for new charges on 62 routes, some of which are jointly operated with Ribble Motor Services, has been filed. Tickets between 2d. and 7d. are concerned, in the main an addition of ld. being proposed.
Sunderland Corporation is to apply for a new rates structure based on Id. a mile. Another £96,438 a year is expected from the new charges, if approved. The deficit this year would be at least £55,000, it was stated recently, and the reserve fund now amounted to only £33,000. The suggested changes include: increase of workmen's universal ticket from lId, to 2d.: abolition of all-day tickets; Id. minimum for children and increase of 3d. on privilege tickets. Fares charged by the undertaking were last increased in 1948.
WOMEN TO BE REPLACED •
NAEN conductors being difficult to nu obtain, about 12 women have been taken on as conductresses at the Plymouth depot of the Western National Omnibus Co., Ltd. The local trade-union secretary is reported as stating that the women will be replaced by men as soon as they are available.
I NSTEAD of having 25 bus bodies built in the transport department's own workshops, Glasgow Transport Committee had decided that assembly be completed by Metropolitan Cammell-Weymann, Ltd., which had sections ready, it is stated.
Ten single-deckers were being made in the workshops and work on the 25 other chassis could not be undertaken until the end of the year. The building capacity of the workshops was one body every six weeks.
Later, the Corporation deferred making a decision on the matter because of strong feelings expressed by the National Union of Vehicle Builders. Men engaged on bodybuilding in West Scotland protested against the Corporation's tendency to place contracts with English companies.
CHEAP FARES: M.P.T.A. STATEMENT
THE council of the Municipal Passenger Transport Association has told Glasgow Transport Committee that free or cheap travel for certain classes of the community has grown to such an extent that the concessions now represent a serious charge upon transport undertakings.
It states that the cost of extensions in the facilities granted to disabled exServicemen should be defrayed from national funds, and expresses the belief that, in other cases, concessions should be charged against the local authority's funds and not against the transport revenue.
INSTITUTION TO DISSOLVE
A DISSOLUTION luncheon is to be .1-1 held on July 4 at the Constitutional Club, Northumberland Avenue, by the London Cartage and Haulage Contractors Provident Institution, of which Mr. Henry Dutfield is the last president.
Founded about 1860 by the old carmen of London, it has done much valuable work, but its membership has been dwindling, and it was therefore thought advisable to dissolve it and hand over its interests and finances to the old-established Worshipful Company of Carmen.
0.P.P.A.'s FIGHT IN S.W.
THE threat to nationalize road passenger transport in the southwest would be met with the same stubborn resistance as that offered in the north-east and East Anglia, Cllr. B. Mather, chairman of the Leeds branch of the Omnibus Passengers' Protection Association, stated recently. •• Weymouth and Portland Chamber of Trade is to oppose the south-. western area scheme, and this action will undoubtedly be followed by many other bodies.
Detailed plans are to be prepared for a neW bus station at Darlington. The cost will be about £18,000, it is understood.