Fare Cut Refused : Fall in Traffic
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APROPOSAL by a Normanton coach operator to reduce the fare on a football excursion to Huddersfield was successfully opposed before the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners, at Leeds, last week.
Mr. W. R. Hargrave, for the West Riding Automobile Co., Ltd., said they were opposing the application, made by Mr. A. E. Gillard, on a grave matter of principle. This was not the time to reduce fares, he said. If the application were granted, many others might arise. A snowball would develop, and the work of the regional fares committee would be upset. Such questions could not be treated independently.
British Railways also objected.
Mr. F. Marshall, for the applicant, said he had held a football excursion licence to Huddersfield since 1947. When the licence was granted. the railway fare from Normanton to Huddersfield was 4s. 3d., but it had been progressively reduced to 2s. 6d. and was now seriously affecting his traffic. This season, he had run to one mid-week match only. At the present fare, the licence was practically redundant.
Mr. Gillard denied that he was not running football excursions in the early and late season because he was more interested in excursions to Morecambe and Blackpool. He was unable to obtain economic loads.
The applicant's drop in figures was modest compared with that of the railways, said Mr. T. B. Atkinson. They lost 500 passengers last year, and there was a further drop this year. The cause of the decline was not the rail fare, which had been in operation since December, 1952, but the recent poor form of the Huddersfield club. Mr_ Gillard was trying to make the railways the scapegoat, he submitted.
Mr. Hargrave pointed out that the excursions fares from Wakefield and Castleford to Huddersfield were also 3s. 9d. Mr. Gillard was asking to reduce it to 2s. 6d. The fare had been 2s: 6d. in 1936. By agreement, • the regional fares committee, had raised it to 3s. 3d. in 1947 and 3s. 9d. in 1952.
The West Riding stage fare between Normanton and Castleford was 9d. return. If the application were granted. Castleford passengers could travel cheaper via Normanton than on the local excursion.