Authority's Scheme Would Cancel Benefit of Higher Fares
Page 35
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
CONCLUDING a three-day hearing at Paignton, last week,' which resulted from the refusal of the Western and Southern National Omnibus Companies and Hants and Dorset and Wilts and Dorset companies, to accept the proposals of the Western Licensing Authority with regard to increased fares, the Licensing Authority, Sir Arnold Must°, promised an early decision.
Strong objections were registered by the four companies to the proposal to extend the return-fare range. There was little or no public demand for it said Mr. C. H. Preece, traffic manager of the Western National Omnibus Co., Ltd. The effect of the extra return fares would be to cancel out almost entirely the benefits to be gained on the increased single fares granted.
Authority Asked to Withdraw For the applicants, Mr. F. A. Stockdale asked the Authority to withdraw completely its proposals so far as they concerned Hants and Dorset; as this concern was primarily a " foreigner " in the Western Area. This would allow the company to make a fresh application for fare changes on the lines of the new rates at present in operation in, the South-Eastern Area.
For the other companies, Mr. Stockdale said that for three days they had been trying to find the "half-way house" between their applications and the Licensing Authority's grant. He asked for a new set of suggestions to be accepted which, it was felt, struck a compromise between the various proposals.
The effect of the companies' counter
• proposals is to accept the Authority's decision on single fares almost as drafted. Return tickets on fares down to 4d. single were to be deleted, as originally proposed. Their suggestions also included modifications to the Authority's proposals concerning season tickets and concession rates.
The estimated additional revenue from these new proposals would be £133,000—approximately half-way between the £70,000 and the £176,000. which were the estimated products of the Licensing Authority's and the companies' proposed variations.
Devon General Agrees
Mr. G. McMurtrie, appearing for the Devon General Omnibus Co., Ltd., agreed with the companies' new proposals and painted out that as he had intimated at the previous inquiry in October, his company would be applying for amendments in so far as any increase granted affected services run jointly with Devon General or over common ground. He objected to return fares being based on lf times the amount of the amended single fares.
Early in the hearing the Authority withdrew the proposal that return tickets under 2s, should be available only on the day of issue, It was also agreed not to introduce new intermediate -id. fares up to 6d. on hearing from Mr. Preece that the two National
companies already had 122,000 singlefare stages and this move would introduce a further 70,000.
Some 25 West Country local authorities objected to the increased multiple for calculating weekly-ticket rates, to the scale of the increases on the higher fare stages and to the fact that in many instances the fares permitted by the Authority were higher than those the companies had sought.
Referring to the question of return fares Mr. Preece said : "At the moment return rates are fixed in accordance with traffic requirements and past experience. The suggestion is that there should be a fixed ratio between single and return fares, but arbitrarily to fix return fares at 12 times the single fares would, in some cases, result in hardship both to the companies and the public."
In reply, the Licensing Authority stated that new figures supplied by the companies made it obvious that the If multiple was unduly large when applied to the higher fares.
Cheap season tickets were also criticized. On this item alone the Western National would lose £62,726 a year.
Last year it was estimated that in 1951, Western National would lose £81,000. In the light of further increases in costs, this figure would become £102,000 at present fares. Last year there was a profit of £82,000.
For Southern National it was stated that even if all the Authority's proposals were put into effect, there would still be a £4,000 loss next year.
When the Wilts and Dorset and Hants and Dorset cases were heard, it was pointed out that increases sanctioned in the South Eastern area created great difficulty in dovetailing conflicting fart schedules in the two areas, in which both concerns operated.
[News of other fares applications will be found on page 331