1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160 
lncommission :ommissioners
Page 55
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
-APPEARS to me that there are iomalies in the present peration of road passenger ansport services, particularly s far as the conflicting views of ie 1978 and 1980 Transport cts are concerned and the )unty councils' responsibilities ) subsidise socially necessary us services from the rates. I believe it is now time for the rea Traffic Commissioners to e abolished and for some of ieir duties to be taken over by le elected county and regional ouncils.
As I see it, there should not be Iree types of bus services in the on-metropolitan counties of ngland, Scotland and Wales. Express services should be nlicensed and unrestricted and perated on the free enterprise rinciples of supply and em and.
Unsubsidised stage carriage ervices should be subject to the ame supply and demand rinciples, and operators should e allowed to decide the fares -ley will charge and the .equency of the services. Subsidised bus services are ervices which are not
rofitable, but are deemed to be ocially necessary. I believe that ounty and regional councils hould be responsible for the rrovision of those services and lave full power over the requency of services and fares harged.
They should be able to ask all le bus and coach owners in the rea to tender for a contract to un the service on behalf of the aunty or regional council, whether they be the local NBC or lEIG subsidiary, an independent ir even the Post Office which you'd be able to tender to run a lost bus service.
The contract for the service ould then be awarded by the council to the operator offering the most favourable terms. These contracts should be subject to renewal every three years so that any operator who fell down in the provision of these services would be in jeopardy of not having his contract renewed.
I believe these policies would give local people the best possible say over the provision of bus services in their area and the type of service provided rather than allowing an unelected body like the Traffic Commissioners to have powers over these matters.
The only argument I can see against the adoption of this policy is that it may end the present cross-subsidisation of profitable and non-profitable services.
I do not believe this to be true, however, since operators who continue to operate a crosssubsidisation policy should be in a position to tender under the most favourable terms for a county council contract to run a subsidised socially necessary service.
D. J. DURANT
Bishops Stortford, Herts.