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Scottish Omnibuires Can Easily Make Good the Rail Cuts

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3rd May 1963

Page 62

Page 62, 3rd May 1963 — Scottish Omnibuires Can Easily Make Good the Rail Cuts

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FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BY adding only about 100 buses to its fleet of 4,600 and by increasing its annual mileage by only 2-5 per cent, the

Scottish Omnibuses group could replace the passenger services which Scotland will lose if Dr. Beeching's proposed rail cuts are implemented,. The take-over of this traffic could be accomplished without the need for Government subsidy and in fact might well result in better, rather than worse, financial results for the State owned Scottish bus companies as a whole.

These predicitions are the result of a Transport Holding Company survey which, at the request of the Conservative transport committee, has been set down in the form of a report; the T.H.C. has now sent copies of this to the transport committees of the other political parties and to the Minister of Transport. Similar surveys of parts of England and Wales are nOw being undertaken by the Holding Company.

Sir Reginald Wilson, deputy chairman and managing director of the Holding Company, told me this week that the financial prospects, as outlined above, are valid only if the Beeching plan is implemented as a whole, and reasonably switfly, so that the bus operators "get the smooth with the rough ", as he put it. This was because there would have to be cross-subsidization.

The Holding Company's survey showed that all but three of the 59 railway passenger services to be withdrawn already had bus services running parallel with them; by running an extra m. bus miles it would be possible to make good the loss of 5i m. train miles. It is proposed by Scottish Omnibuses that two of the three routes, Inverness to Kyle and Oban to Ballachulish, which have no parallel bus service should have new bus routes over their entire length and that some sort of service could be provided for the third—a section of the link between Thurso and Inverness.

Some existing routes will need extra buses operating on them but the T.H.C. report points out that much of the extra mileage required could be provided by better utilization of existing buses. This, and some rearrangement of the way in which bus crews are employed, could result in economies which, together with the heavier passenger traffic on some existing routes that would be carrying ex-rail travellers, would be more than enough to balance the small bus-loadings expected on new bus routes in thinly populated areas. This, of course, is the basis

n28 of the cross-subsidization referred to earlier.

This T.H.C. report has been received with surprise in some quarters, perhaps because many people do not realize the proportion of traffic already carried by road in Scotland. The Scottish Omnibuses companies run about 180 m. miles a year and the 2-5 per cent increase which the latest proposals would involve is almost within the range of traffic fluctuation from year to year. The annual takings of the group, at around £22 m., are considerably greater than the total B.R. Scottish Region receipts.

The rail-to-road trend, and the financial results of it, have been made clear in successive B.T.C. annual reports; as long ago as the 1950 report (p. 71) and 1951 report (pp. 71-74) the situation was made plain.

No more Bournemouth Trolleys NO more trolleybuses will be bought by Bournemouth Corporation, which has decided to "phase out" trolleybuses over the next five to 10 years.

The Corporation has 90 in service at present and 48 of these will be due for renewal by about 1968.

Demonstrating Savings I NTERIM results have been issued by the Michelin Tyre Co. Ltd. of the demonstrations it is holding throughout the U.K. to show the fuel-saving properties of Michelin "X" tyres. The start of the demonstration tour was reported in our issue of February 8, and up to April 19, the Michelin " X " tyres are said to have shown an average saving of 8-25 per cent with the Bedford-Harrington coaches over 28 tests, and 11-64 per cent with Leyland-Plaxtons over 29 tests.