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Bradford May Request More Fare Increases : Costs 160 0 / Higher

5th July 1957, Page 42
5th July 1957
Page 42
Page 42, 5th July 1957 — Bradford May Request More Fare Increases : Costs 160 0 / Higher
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A NEW fares schedule, drawn up r-k by Bradford Transport Committee, was approved last week by the city council, and is to be put before the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners for approval. When the council discussed the increases, which would bring in an extra £100,000, members were told that further rises would be sought when the employees' wage claim was settled.

Cllr. J. E. B. Singleton suggested that it was wrong for people using paying routes to have to subsidize unremunerative services. He said that if it proved impossible to make certain routes pay, the committee should seriously consider withdrawing buses from them.

He was told by Ald. R. C. Ruth that since 1938 costs had risen 160 per cent., whereas fares had gone up by only 100 per cent. The corporation had to provide a public service and could not withdraw a service just because it did not pay. Last year the number of passengers dropped by 18m., which was probably because of the increased popularity of cars and motor scooters.

• The West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., were last week granted permission by the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners to increase and revise fares on a mileage • basis. The chairman, Maj. F. S. Eastwood, commented that the application was reasonable, and they were glad it had been put forward.

For the company, Mr. W. R. Hargrave said that under the scheme a large percentage of fares would remain unaltered, whilst others would be reduced. Those that were increased would only go up by "a reasonable amount."

Offset Increases?

Objecting to the application, which covered all types of fare on the stagecarriage services, Mr. B. E. Townend, clerk to Ilkley Urban District Council, said that new services and the development of existing ones could offset the proposed increases.

Keighley West Yorkshire Services, Ltd., were granted increases and fare revisions on a similar basis. The Yorkshire Pullman Bus Co., Ltd.. were allowed to revise fares on their stage carriage services.

Glasgow Corporation, who already grant travel concessions to aged people, are now extending the cut-rate fares. Elderly folk will be able to travel for td. on trams, trolleybuscs and the underground from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on any day except Saturday. Newcastle upon Tyne City Council are also considering the introduction of concessions for oldage pensioners on their services.

New fares on Swindon Corporation transport came into operation on Sun day. All adult fares over 21d. are increased by Id. with proportionate increases in children's fares. The new scale is expected to bring in an extra £17,000 a year. In the year ended last c4 March the undertaking had a net surplus of £2,340.

The Economic Bus Co., Ltd., have been granted permission by the Northern Traffic Commissioners to retain the Suez-crisis increases in fares between Sunderland and South Shields. They explained that unless the application were granted they would sustain a loss this year, because of rapidly increasing costs.

No Appeal

A group of local authorities who were planning an appeal. against .the Yorkshire Traflic Commissioners' decision to allow return-fare increases on services tun by the East Yorkshire Motor Services, Ltd., have been advised • by their financial officer to let the matter rest. The company's application for an increase in contract-ticket rates was refused.

Leicester Transport Committee will probably have to seek higher fares when a new wage award is made, Cllr. S. W. Bridges said last week. Leeds Transport Committee chairman, Ald. John Rafferty, said that serious consideration would have to be given to raising the city's fares again when it was known how much the award would affect the undertaking's surplus.

98 APPEALS LODGED

nUR1NG 1956. 98 new appeals were

lodged with the Transport Tribunal, and of these 23 were not prosecuted. At the end of 1955, 11 appeals were pending. Sixty-four appeals were heard last year and 63 were determined. The appellants succeeded in 31. In three cases orders were made by consent of the parties. Twenty-seven appeals were heard in Scotland.

These facts are given by the Tribunal in their 1956 report.

. "Use Railways to the Full"

" IT is essential to the national

economy that we make the maximum use of our railway system," said Mr. Harold Watkinson, Minister of Transport, when he opened the Modern Railway Travel Exhibition in London last week.

"After all," he added, "travel by rail is still a relatively cheap commodity."

He • hoped that the exhibition would encourage a greater use of the railways. Modernization should enable them to attract back a great deal of the business they had lost.


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