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PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.

29th May 1928, Page 57
29th May 1928
Page 57
Page 57, 29th May 1928 — PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

BLACKPOOL motor-coach owners are making an earnest endeavour to settle, once and for all, the evil of low rates. It will be remembered that a abort time ago we recorded the fact that the 12 operators of the daily motor-coach services bad come to an . agreement, through the Blackpool and District Motor Coach Owners' Association, for the regularization of fares, and it was agreed that for the journeys from Blackpool to Manchester there should be forthwith an increase in the day return fares from 3s, to 4s. for the 95-mile journey.

This rate having now become consolidated without any perceptible less el traffic, the coach owners concerned have been encouraged to go a step farther, and their aetion has crystallized in the establishment of a rate of 4s. W. for the journey to Liverpool and Manchester. Thus, in the space of Eve or six weeks, fares have been advanced by 50 per cent, and yet they are lower than may be found in other parts of South-Wet Lancashire. It is not going too far to say that nowhere else in the north-west country is it possible to book for journeys on the most up-to-data vehicles at only a trifle more than per passenger ner mile. Even the Liverpool owners—several of whom are operating larger-type vehicles, complain that 5s. for the return journey is too little. But that rate has become so general by the normal functioning of the law of supply and demand that what was intended to be a minimum has also become the maximum. Conditions are slightly better in the Manchester territory where specialists on the Blackpool run charge fis. for day return

tickets. This situation is interesting, because several of the Blackpool dailyservice coach owners have running arrangements with Manchester owners, so that passengers booking outward from Manchester for the evening run to Blackpool and due to return by the morning coach are required to pay 1s. ed. more than if they had booked from Blackpool.

There are plenty of vehicles running from Manchester and Liverpool to Blackpool and from Blackpool to Manchester and Liverpool. Surely it is anomalous that there should be three different fares for the same journey. The embarrassment is greater for the Liverpool and Manchester owners than for those at Blackpool, for passengers cannot ,resist the temptation to point out to the city owners how cheap is travel from Blackpool. The remedy is obvious.

The Blackpool owners have made a good start in putting their houses in order and, having regard to the costliness of the vehicles they operate, they would be doing only a reasonable thing by elevating their fares list to the level of those of owners in Liverpool or Manchester. The existence of different rates for the same journey is apt to be confusing to the travelling public.

It should not be a difficult matter for the coach owners of the three centres —at least, those who are interested in the daily services—to agree upon a common rate. Meanwhile, the Blackpool owners are proceeding on the right lines, and if, by gradual stages, they Tau bring about a revision of their tariffs, they will be doing much to impart a better feeling of stability in the ranks of the vehicle owners, not only here but elsewhere.


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