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RMER coach park operator and now independent coach operator n Simons has won his battle with London Transport to operate a athrow Airport to Central London coach service.
Mr Simon's company, htg ray Ltd, applied to LT for rmission to run a London bus rvice between West London d Heathrow when British Airye' own airport bus service emed likely to be abandoned M,pecem be r 6, 1980).
LT refused to give its permison and launched its own Airus service, which uses 15 ICW Metrobus double-dears, as an overland alternative to re Piccadilly line Underground nk.
Lightgray appealed to Transart Secretary Norman Fowler ;ainst LT's refusal and despite .1 inspector's inquiry which :commended that the appeal a. dismissed, Mr Fowler upheld ie appeal.
He said the appeal procedure 'London was introduced in the 380 Transport Act to encourage eople who wanted to introduce ew bus services and that LT lould be encouraged to regard ich services as making a contriution towards meeting the eeds of London and not as posig a threat to its own interests. Jon Simons plans to launch is new service from September nd hopes to operate two °aches between Ashburn Mews near Gloucester Road and Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3.
He plans to have a third coach available at all times to allow the front line coaches to be removed from service for cleaning every four to five hours. A fourth coach is also to be available as a traffic and engineering spare.
The 'service would run between 0600 hours and 2300 hours and use a team of seven drivers. Fares are expected to be £2 for an adult and £1 for a child, paid for either by pre-paid vouchers or cash. At present Lightgray has only two coaches — a Bristol LHS Flexion and a Ford Van Hool — and is already looking for four new coaches for the service. It is searching particularly for integral vehicles with their extensive underfloor luggage accommodation and is very interested in the DAF-powered Dutch-built Bova.
London Transport is disappointed at the Minister's decision but says it is unafraid of new competition, considering that the Airportis adequately served by both road and rail services.