Undertakings come first
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• An application by Kenneth Ennion, a Barnton, Cheshire, based coach operator, to add seven new picking up points to an excursions and tours licence was refused by the chairman of the North Western Traffic Commissioners, Mr C. R. Hodgson, in Manchester last Friday, because he felt that the extra stages could lead to an abstraction of passengers using excursion services offered by the North Western Road Car Co Ltd, which, along with A. E. and R. I. Niddrie, of Northwich, was objecting to the application.
However, Mr Hodgson was prepared to grant the second part of the application, which was to alter the route on excursion tours to the Lake District and Blackpool to include M. There were no objections lodged to this part of the application.
Mr D. Diamond, representing the applicants, told the Commissioners that the application had been made because, owing to the infrequency and high fares scale of North Western services which most of the applicant's excursion passengers used to reach the departure point, there had been a decline in demand.
Giving evidence, Mr Ennion told the Commissioners that this year alone his excursion passengers had fallen off by nearly 50 per cent. The reason for this, he said, was because people were not prepared to use the North Western service to reach Barnton as it was expensive and unreliable. If the additional picking up points were granted a wide area around Northwich would be covered which would increase the number of passengers on the excursions.
Members of the public who gave supporting evidence on behalf of the applicant all agreed that the excursions had become less attractive because of the decline in the North Western services, but agreed that they would make more use of the services if the licence were granted.
Mr P. J. Emmett, superintendent of the North Western depot at Northwich, told Mr Hodgson that the unreliable services were a result of the new drivers' hours regulations and that the high fares had been brought about by increased costs; North Western could not afford to have passengers abstracted from its excursions services, which were a high source of revenue.
Mr Hodgson told the applicant that the application was like a hundred others the Commissioners heard every year. If the public wished to travel by a service which was centred several miles away, rather than use one that was virtually on their doorsteps, they must be prepared to do so at their own expense. He added that the Commissioners must always consider an appeal by any company which had commitments to meet before granting a private operator a licence.