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Manchester-Buxton Inquiry Opens
DOUBTS about the ability of railreplacement bus services to run to the schedules proposed were expressed in a memorandum by local authority objectors at the inquiry into closure of the Manchester-Buxton rail line which opened on Tuesday.
The closure inquiry, held by the North Western Transport Users' Consultative Committee, was described as the most important in the country by Mr. E. S. Fay, Q.C., representing 12 objecting local: authorities. Fifty other organizations objected to the proposed closure of the 30-mile line (which British Railways claim will lose £160,000 this year and nearly £200,000 annually in 1966-68) and there was also an objecting petition carrying 22,613 names.
Mr. Fay said the line carried 8,000 passengers daily to and from Manchester and in a peak one-hour period 1,800 people travelled on nine trains. The pattern of life in the area depended on the railways, he asserted.
When opening a new garage in Buxton recently, the chairman of the North Western Road Car Co. Ltd. had said: " If this company were asked to provide alternative facilities, then we would seek to run an express service or a limited-stop service, and in reasonable traffic conditions they could expect to complete the journey in 75 minutes."
In a memorandum, objecting local authorities said they would be very surprised if a bus covered 26 miles in the proposed 75 minutes including 11-pickingup points. From Whaley Bridge to Manchester by car took the objectors 56 minutes; North Western Road Car planned a 45-minute journey on this route. The objectors had only once been able to equal this time, and then in an E-type Jaguar.