• Lower Road Fare Wins Appeal
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ANappeal by British Railways against the grant of a licence to Hall Bros. (South Shields), Ltd., permitting them to operate an express service between South Shields, Coventry and Bedworth, has been rejected by the Minister, of Transport because the "'fare differential, taken in conjunction with the nature of the alternative services provided, is so great that the lower fares offered by the road service will attract people to travel who might not otherwise make the journey at all."
Another appeal, rejected against the recommendation of a Ministry of Transport inspector, Mr. W. Tudor Davies, inspired some interesting -comment by the Minister.
Mr. A. T. Chivers, Clydach. appealed against the South Wales Licensing Aulhority's refusal to grant him a licence for a stage service between Tirphil and Pilleitigton's Glass Works. The Minister agreed with the Authority's principle that, in the first place, Red and White Services, Ltd., as the established operators, were willing and able to provide the service, and, secondly, that abstraction of traffic from their services would weaken their ability to provide unremunerative facilities.
Nevertheless, he considered that too much weight was given to these points "and, indeed [the Authority] seemed to have regarded them almost as overriding all other considerations."
The Minister also agreed that the needs of the workers for whom the service was proposed could not be met by a normal stage service, but, on the other hand, he could not accept his inspector's statement that, "By all the tenets of equity and law, the need in this application was established by Mr. Chivers."