New Regulations for `Omo'?
Page 33
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ONE-MAN DOUBLE-DECKERS WITH OR WITHOUT TOP DECKS OPEN
DRAFT Regulations to permit the . more extensive use of one-man operated buses, including double-deckers, have been circulated to interested organizations by the Minister of Transport. Comments from the organizations have been invited within three weeks.
Subject to the necessary safety requirements, the Minister proposes to give operators scope to experiment with and develop new operating techniques involving the use of one-man double-deckers, either with the top deck sealed off, or, in certain circumstances (such as stage services with few intermediate stops) with the top deck left open. The safety . requirements would include An entrance at the front of the vehicle, drivercontrolled doors at every entrance and exit, and a single forward staircase if a double-decker is •to be employed with both decks open.
The proposed Regulations would also permit double-deckers to be designed with a " standee " layout in the lower saloon. At present only single-deckers of this type are permitted. As the total number of passengers, both seated and standing, that could be carried on a bus of this type would be limited by the
weight .restrictions imposed under the Construction and Use Regulations, the most likely development in this direction would be the double-decker with facilities for sealing off the top deck, which would then make the bus effectively a standee single-decker.
Amongst other changes proposed by Mr. Fraser is the removal of the rule preventing passengers from standing when there is a vacant seat on the upper deck of a double-decker. This rule has caused hardship to old people and the disabled who cannot easily get to the upper deck when the lower-deck seats are all taken, and have sometimes been turned off the bus.
The operation of all the above types of one-man or standee double-deckers would still depend on individual authorization by the Traffic Commissioners as already applies to single-deckers with more than 2,0 seats. However, the Minister proposes that, subject to certain basic safety requirements, single-deckers with more than 20, but not more than 33, seats should be allowed to operate without a conductor, irrespective of special dispensation, and without reference to the fares charged.