Denationalization : P.V. 0. A. to Express Fares Next Ask for Talks With Government To Go Up?
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AN assurance that consultations will shortly take place to decide methods for fulfilling the Conservatives' pledge to abandon area schemes is being sought by the Passenger Vehicle Operators' Association. In a statement received this week, the P.V.O.A. indicates the points on which it will ask the Government to act.
Until the necessary amending legislation can be passed, says the Association, the immediate threat of nationalization should be removed by a direction from the Minister of Transport under Section 4 of the Transport Act, instructing the British Transport Commission to abandon the present area-scheme proposals.
The privilegeof the B.T.C. to run coach and bus services anywhere in the country without road service licences should be taken away, also its power to control any road passenger
undertaking. It could be left with a financial interest, as were the railways previously.
The specific powers of the Commission under the Transport Act to carry passengers by road "within Great Britain" should be restricted to the carrying of passengers on routes only where road service licences have been granted under the Road Traffic Act. The general duty of providing or promoting the provision of an efficient, adequate, economical and properly integrated system of public inland transport for passengers by road should be restored to the Licensing Authorities, states the P.V.O.A.
In the meantime, the B.T.C. should 'be directed by the Minister that all road passenger services provided by it or by undertakings it controls, may be provided only under road service licences, except possibly for some services run by the London Transport Executive within the original London Passenger Transport Board special area.
In a further reference to the L.T.E., the statement declares that the Executive's wider powers acquired under the Transport Act should be taken away.
The directions or instruments of delegation made by the B.T.C. under -which services were being run outside the former L.P.T.B. area and contract carriages were being operated up to 100 miles from London should he withdrawn and the Commission prevented from issuing any more. New excursion services within the L.T.E. area introduced since 1947 should not be allowed to continue unless they met a public need not already catered for by licensed operators.
Dealing with voluntarily acquired undertakings, in which Tillings, S.M.T. and Red and White are mentioned, the Association states that the controlling interest of the B.T.C. exercised through ownership of nearly all the share capital should be adjusted. The Commission's interest should be reduced to less than half the share capital and the remainder made available to the public.
if this were done and area schemes were abandoned, the Road Passenger Executive would not serve any useful function and should be disbanded.