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Minister opens Peterlee de Dot
Page 33
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NATIONAL Bus Company subsidiary United Automobile Services Ltd's new maintenance depot at Peterlee, County Durham, was officially opened last week by Transport Minister William Rodgers.
Before inviting the minister to open the depot, Bob Rawlinson, NBC's northern regional director, spoke of the benefits the depot would bring to the local area.
He said the £470,000 depot will prvide a much needed local base for the bus company to meet the growing demand for services in the expanding new town.
United estimate that savings resulting from improved operating efficiency and vehicle reliability will help pay off the building costs in about 10 years.
Mr Rodgers said in his opening speech: "Nothing has been more neglected by our transport planning than the role of the conventional bus.
"Those who have not been directly involved in the industry have taken for granted the service that the bus provides.
"As for the general public, they have grumbled about frequency, argued about where buses should stop and complained about the level of fares. But they have always been assured that a bus service would be there to take them conveniently to school or to work or to the shops."
He continued: "It is only within the last few years that, faced with the consequences of inflation, we have begun to worry about the permanance of public transport by road.
"We have come to take for granted that the railways require a subsidy from public funds in order to maintain certain socially essential sevices. Now we must start to recognise that the same is true with buses."
Mr Rodgers then outlined the responsibilities of county councils towards public transport as specified in the recent White Paper. He said that though county councils have not had long to adjust their programmes to abide by the policies set out in the White Paper, some counties have clearly chosen to make a considered choice, which falls short of the national policy.
He wants to foster and sustain the partnership between central and local government, but he warned he did not intend to abandon his commitment to retaining and developing effective local public transport.