Viersey transport loss
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ERSEYSIDE Passenger Transport Executive lost £24.44m on its rectly-operated bus ferry services in 1980/81.
Buses cost £52.2m to operate, th £41,64m employment costs nounting to 72.5 per cent of e cost of providing bus and rry services. Passenger venue was £27.6m, private res £900,000, and zone tickets id scholars' contracts brought £4.2m.
Subsidies paid to operators ith agency agreements with erseyside came to £19.5m ter zone ticket revenue was ap)rtioned.
The recession and unemployent on Merseyside has )pressed business, mainly on nes and ferries, with fares venue falling by five per cent real terms below the forecast r 1980/81.
While a series of industrial s,putes caused disruption to rwices in the North, South, and iriral divisions between Janiry and March this year cost 150,000, the number of man iys lost through industrial ac .tion fell from 0.7 to 0.6 per cent.
There have been several revisions to bus services in the PTE area, partly to meet budgetary considerations, and work has proceeded towards implementing a full Service Costing/Revenue Analysis and Monitoring (SCRAM) system this year.
Most of the PTE's directly operated services are operated with one-man buses, and progress towards similar standards on agency services was continued last year, with Ribble introducing complete o-m-o at Aintree, and Crosville completing its Merseyside conversion programme with its Liverpool depot going 100 per cent o-m-o.
The PTE has also introduced two experimental midi-bus services in the inner city areas of Liverpool, one serving Vauxhall, the other Toxteth.
The Merseyside annual report records that a 25 to 50 per cent reduced fares experiment in St Helens, from October 1979 to June 1980, attracted 13 per cent additional off-peak traffic. When it ended, revenue loss stood at £5,200 a week, and passenger growth at six per cent.
Two Leopard coaches were allocated to the Southport fleet to expand private hire activity, and the completion of a contract for Alexander-bodied Atlantean, Dennis, and Metrobus doubledeckers will bring to 151 the number of buses fitted with tachographs.