Tax Relief or Higher Fares ?
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AFOURTH application for an increase in fares could hardly be avoided unless the Chancellor of the Exchequer had second thoughts on the Finance Bill and relieved the bus industry of part of the £30m. a year which it paid in fuel tax and Road Fund duties, said Mr. R. W. Birch, chairman of the Potteries Motor Traction Co., Ltd., last Friday.
The company's fleet, which a year ago numbered 537, including vehicles purchased from liquidators of subsidiary companies, had been reduced to 490 vehicles, of which over half were now double-deckers. During the year under review many old vehicles, including 22 single-deckers, were discarded.
The design of the new buses • would be influenced by experience with a lightweight double-decker now being run experimentally.
Dealing with the subject of road maintenance, Mr: Birch said that there were two special kinds of" black spot" which needed attention—level-crossings and low bridges, both of them great obstacles to economic operation. Money spent by local authorities, with Government approval, to eliminate them -fsould enable the company to reduce cost and provide better services.
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"I particularly have in mind the level-crossing at Burslem, which dislocates our 'main line' bus service to Kidsgrove and beyond, and the low bridges at Abbey Hulton, Longton and Stoke," said Mr. Birch. "The Abbey Hulton bridge ties us to single-deckers, when a lowering of the roadway to its original level would admit of doubledeckers and enable us to clear the peakhour traffic properly, whilst the other two bridges restrict us to operating the low-bridge type of double-decker instead of the normal type." the chairman continued.
"I sincerely hope that the roads department of the Ministry of Transport will secure financial help to the local highway authorities for the comparatively simple work of lowering the roadways under these three bridges," he added.
EAST KENT TAKE-OVER
THE stage-carriage services of Messrs. Sarjeant Bros., Folkestone, are to be taken over by the East Kent Road Car Co.. Ltd. The firm have operated from Folkestone to Hythe and Dymchurch for many years. It is understood that the company will take over both vehicle and staff.