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D-day for buses timetable runs late

9th February 1985
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The Transport Bill was published last week, detailing Nicholas Ridley's controversial plans for a free market for buses. Alan Millar summarises its proposals

FEW EXPECTED that Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley would make radical changes to the bus deregulation proposals in his 1984 White Paper when he got around to publishing the Transport Bill. After all, there is a strong feeling in Westminster that the Bill will run into vociferous opposition from MPs and peers worried about the danger of suburban and rural buses disappearing. Any climbdown now might have been interpreted as lack of spine.

The Bill, published last Thursday, does attempt to meet some fears of the effects of the free forms of deregulation, but the basic philosophy of leaving market forces to determine bus services remains paramount. "The introduction of competition into local bus services will put the emphasis on the customer rather than the operator. It will bring the opportunity for lower fares, new services, more passengers and better value for money for the ratepayer and taxpayer," Mr Ridley said when the Bill was published.

When it will happen Because over 8,0 0 0 responses have flowed into the Department of Transport since the White Paper and associated consultation documents were published, the timetable for deregulation is running late, and it is far from certain whether the Bill will receive the Royal Assent before the summer recess. The April 1986 target date has now been put back by six months and a new D-day of October 1, 1986, has been set for the abolition of road service licensing outside London.

A transitional period is now planned to make the change from regulation to deregulation. This will start on January 1 next year when the conditions for granting road service licences will be relaxed. Whereas the 1980 Transport Act gave Traffic Commissioners authority to refuse a licence application where it was against the public interest, Mr Ridley now proposes three specific grounds for refusal which will be much less open to contest.

These are if the new service would disrupt arrangements made by county councils, regional councils or a Passenger Transport Executive for a smooth transition to deregulation; if the applicant already received blanket subsidies and would consequently become an unfair competitor; or if the new service would have a severely detrimental effect on traffic conditions.

So that local authorities are in a position from D-day to switch from blanket subsidies to specific route subsidies agreed by tendering, a period of cautious accelerated deregulation will apply from June 30, 1986. That will be the last date for an operator to register a service, other than any approved by a county council, if it is to start on October 1.

If the new unsubsidised service is to be started before January 1, 1987, the operator will need to give three months' notice of its intentions, during which it may withdraw or modify its plans.

From January 1987, when the market will have free rein, and local authorities only fill the gaps with subsidies for routes which market forces fail to provide, operators will need to give 42 days' notice.

Route registration In place of the present road service licensing, all local services will need to be registered with the area Traffic Commissioner (a single person in place of the present chairman and one or two assistants) if that service carries passengers on single journeys of up to 15 miles as the crow flies. The DTp had suggested a five-mile limit in its consultation documents, so the Bill goes some way towards helping operators retain fuel duty rebate which is paid at present on routes of up to 30 miles. But the scope for dividing express services into local services to gain rebate will be much diminished.

Mr Ridley has rejected suggestions that county councils should become the registration authorities, partly because there would be 65 of them rather than nine Traffic Commissioners, and also because the Commissioners retain powers to take action against errant operators.

The Commissioner will have power to hold an inquiry where the local authority wishes him to consider imposing conditions on routes, stopping places, the times vehicles spend at stopping places or other associated matters if the risk of increased traffic congestion or danger appears to exceed the interests of other bus operators and prospective or existing passengers.

It will be possible to appeal against a traffic condition judgment, in the first instance to the Transport Secretary, and subsequently to the High Court in England or Wales and the Court of Session in Scotland.

Taxis and hire cars and minibuses The Bill contains powers to permit taxis and hire cars to carry passengers at separate fares and to provide local services. It also restricts English and Welsh local authorities' powers to limit the issue of taxi licences only to cases where they believe extra licences would lead to a reduced number of taxis being available or would lead to a very large increase in the cost of providing the taxis. And it reforms the law affecting the use and condition of what currently are classed as non-psv minibuses and community minibuses. Operator licensing The Bill contains a clause giving Traffic Commissioners power to control the behaviour of operators of local services. And it has a new sanction.

The Traffic Commissioner may debar an operator from running one or more local services if it (a) operates an unregistered service frequently or dangerously; (b) if it frequently fails to operate a registered service according to the conditions laid down; (c) if its maintenance is inadequate; and (d) if an operator, its employee or agent intentionally interferes with another operator's local service, operates a local service in a dangerous manner, or is guilty of serious misconduct in relation to the operation of a local service.

There will be powers to restrict the vehicles which may be used by the operator if the Commissioner is satisfied that maintenance is bad or if other operators' vehicles are used as a means of getting around the law; and it will be illegal to ply for hire with a vehicle with more than eight seats.

In these cases, operators will be entitled to appeal to the Transport Tribunal — the appeal judiciary which already deals with goods vehicle cases — if a Traffic Commissioner refuses to grant an 0-licence in accordance with the application or attaches extra conditions to the licence. The Tribunal will also deal with appeals against Cornmissioners' decisions to refuse to vary or remove a condition on an 0-licence or revocations, suspensions or curtailments of 0-licences, or ly disqualification of an erator.

Nhere an operator is refused certificate of initial fitness or type certificate for a taxi to rry passengers at separate 'es, it may appeal to the ansport Secretary.

The new sanction in this area that an operator which fails register a service, or lerates a service unreliably, ands to lose 20 per cent of its el duty rebate for all of its irvices run during the evious three months.

The Ministerial team piloting e Bill through Parliament has omised that safety standards 11 be enforced. Countering iried comments on the low andard of some of the buses ied in the Hereford and Worster deregulated trial area, Mr dley said he intended to ap)int "enough" inspectors.

But neither he nor Junior ansport Minister David Mit'ell would be drawn last week how many inspectors were )nough". Mr Mitchell said he id his colleagues would be )usy looking to our compleent" of inspectors once it beame clear how many aerators would take advange of deregulation from Day. He was confident that the Jmber of additional operators oulci be known sufficiently ell in advance of D-day.

The Bill also repeals the xisting entitlement to fair ages and conditions which is njoyed by public service ahicle drivers, and removes ie sanction to suspend or avoke an 0-licence of an perator which fails to pay ites comparable with those in overnment departments. Bus and coach stations Local authorities will be unable to discriminate against any operator when making parking places available for coaches and buses in bus stations on its land. The same does not appear to apply to companyowned bus stations, but English PTEs may not contract out their bus stations to other operators.

London Part Two of the Bill excludes London from the free-for-all proposed elsewhere in mainland Britain for the time being, but the Transport Secretary will have powers to repeal the London section at a later date. Mr Ridley explained last week that much has still to be done to reduce London Regional Transport's costs before a totally competitive environment may be brought to the capital. His opponents may try to force his hand by amending the Bill to add London from the start.

Operators will either have the option of running without a route licence and by agreement with LRT or to apply to the Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner for a London local service licence which will be granted unless the Commissioner considers that it is against the public interest. Route and stopping restrictions may be placed on a London local service licence, but no fares conditions.

Appeals may be directed in the first instance to the Transport Secretary, then to the High Court.

National Bus Company Privatisation and dismemberment of the National Bus Corn pany remains Mr Ridley's longterm aim, but it is heading steadily on to the back burner. He said last week that although it has a £250m book value, he had no idea what it would be worth if sold. "I am not a stockbroker. Indeed, I'm not at all sure that it is floatable on the stock exchange," he said.

NBC has been asked to prepare options for its dismemberment and ultimate privatisation within a three-year period, but is first to prepare its local operations so that they may compete fairly once deregulation takes effect. As a holding company, NBC will be responsible for the sale of its local subsidiaries and will be required to secure at least the repayment of its capital debt to the Government before it is wound up.

Passenger Transport Executives To achieve an equitable basis for competition, the seven PTEs must form themselves into public limited companies by Dday. They will cease to have a duty to co-operate with the National Bus Company, in the case of the six English PTEs, or with the Scottish Transport Group in Strathclyde, and provision is made for existing arrangements between operators to be broken. No other PTEs may be created once the Bill becomes law.

Tyne and Wear PTE and County (CM, February 2) have expressed fears that their Metro-based integrated system will disintegrate if full-scale competition ensues. Junior Transport Minister David Mitchell stressed last week that NBC would not be direct to compete against the Metro. Anyone could exploit a commercial opportunity by competing with the Metro, but if the integrated system ran where people wanted to go and not where planners wanted them to go, then he felt the PTE had nothing to fear.

Sub-division of the PTEs into smaller units has, like NBC dismemberment, been deferred. Powers are sought in the Bill, but it is not given any time limit.

Powers of PTEs and CO uncils PTEs will lose their existing duty to secure and promote an integrated and efficient public transport system. Instead, they will have to secure the provision of such services as the free market cannot provide to meet what they, the PTEs, consider is necessary to fulfil the public transport requirements within their areas. They may not inhibit competition between operators.

County, regional and island councils should secure the provision of services the free market cannot provide to meet their needs and, in England and Wales, should consult with district councils. They will be given powers to promote the availability of public transport services and assist the public by making services convenient. As with the PTEs, they may not inhibit competition.

Municipal undertakings Only those municipal authorities which already have bus operating powers may continue to have them, and with the exception of very small ones — presumably the two North Wales bus undertakings which are run as part of their leisure departments — they should form their undertakings into public limited companies by Dday. The companies will be permitted to continue some peripheral business activities.

Finance Concessionary fares will survive deregulation, according to Mr Ridley, and all operators will be entitlted to participate in any system operated by a council. Councils will reimburse operators.

Rural grants, starting at £20m in the first year, will be available through fuel duty rebate over and above revenue support to areas of low population.

Rail replacement Something added since the White Paper, but hardly surprising in light of current Government moves to increase British Rail's efficiency, is a clause for BR to have power to secure the provision of Government-subsidised services in place of a railway line.

To guarantee some level of permanence, which did not happen in the Sixties when mass rail closures occurred, withdrawal of substitute buses will be subject to the same notice of closure as applies to rail lines. There is no retrospective protection for bus services which have already replaced rail lines, nor for bus services in areas which have never had rail services.

Restrictive trade legislation The White Paper proposal to submit any co-operation agreements between bus operators to the Director-General of Fair Trading, to establish whether they are in the public interest, has been dropped from the Bill.


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