£305,000 surplus
Page 21
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for Tyneside PTE
• An operating revenue surplus of £305,466 was made in the year ended December 31 1972 by Tyneside PTE, its annual report, published this week, reveals. But the report warns that it would be "unrealistic" to expect the satisfactory financial results achieved by the PTE in its first three years to continue.
The situation will change "without either a major reduction in the level of service provision and/or possibly unacceptable increase in rate support," the report says. It goes on to liken public transport to public housing where costs are met jointly by users and ratepayers. The report suggests that there is unlikely to be a once and for all solution to the problem of public transport finance. Instead the relative levels of user charges and rate precept contribution will gradually evolve and will probably fluctuate "as the economic circumstances of the area dictates".
A fare increase during the latter part of the year will be inevitable if the present balance between fares and precept is to be maintained, says the report. The report contains a breakdown of figures related to the PTE's bus operations. Some of these, with 1971 figures in brackets, are: bus mileage operated, 15.68m (15.66); passengers carried 111.33m (106.60m); bus operations income £5.01m (£4.84m); revenue per bus mile, 31.97p (30.90p); bus operations expenditure. £4.53m (£4.22m); costs per bus mile, 28.86p (26.97p).
The fleet in 1972 totalled 384 buses, 16 more than in the previous year. One-man buses totalled 203 compared with only 111 in the previous year. Average life of the fleet was 6.4 years. An experimental express service between Killinghome New Town and Newcastle Central Station had proved successful and the potential for similar services in other areas was being considered. A pre-Christmas park-and-ride service was so popular that Newcastle city council asked for it to be continued.
A net operating surplus of £201,635 in 1972 compared with a figure of £379,095 in 1971. The general reserve carried forward was £1,353.005 compared with £1,048.539.