Southern Vectis opens doors
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• Southern Vectis, the Isle of Wight-based bus company has agreed to allow rival operators to use its bus station at Newport in line with a Government recommendation.
According to the Office of Fair Trading director general, Sir Gordon Borne: "I welcome Southern Vectis' agreement to these undertakings and hope that other companies owning bus stations elsewhere will similarly agree to admit other bus operators."
Southern Vectis faced a hearing in front of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission if it did not agree to abide by the fair trading standard. Section 82 of the Transport Act requires bus stations, owned by local authorities and passenger transport executives, to provide access to all operators of bus services. This provision does not apply to privately — owned bus stations, but the competition legislation was amended so that the director general could investigate a case were it appeared that refusal to allow access to rivals could be anti-competitive.