• The Government made a
Page 17
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
profit of more than million from privatising the National Bus Company. Tranport Secretary Paul Channon says that the gross proceeds of the sale amounted to £323 million: £17 million more than estimated in the company's 1986-87 accounts, and nearly three times initial City estimates, Channon says: "This is an excellent outcome to the NBC's privatisation programme which involved the sale of 72 subsidiaries (over half of which were sold to their own management) embodying some 14,000 buses and coaches and 48,000 employees."
• Smoking is now banned on all Hampshire bus services as part of a passenger-comfort campaign by the company's owners, Stagecoach Holdings.
• Bus and Coach Training's PSV driving instructor assessment scheme has been given an official seal of approval from the National Council for Vocational Qualifications. BCT has also launched a I0-minute video called "Qualify for Quality" based on its instructor training programme.
II Peter Atkinson, a former operations director of London County North East, has formed a new operator consultancy service in Royston, Herts, called AtkinsonSharp Associates.
• Major European railways operators aim to lure thousands of package holiday tourists away from coach travel with a 21st Century high-speed rail network scheme. By 2015, if the network wins EC approval, it could be whisking passengers from Scotland to southern Spain and Greece at 290km/h. British Rail chairman Sir Robert Reed predicts that the highspeed trains could travel from London to northern Italy in just eight hours, and to Greece within 14 hours.