Inquiry. into Glasgow Transport
Page 37
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AN inquiry is to be held into the financial position of GlasgoW Transport Department. The transport committee decided last week to proceed immediately with the necessary arrangements and recommended the appointment of the following members to form the panel of inquiry; Mr. John Cameron, Q.C., the Dean of Faculty of Advocates; Mr. 1. W. Macdonald, fOrmer Professor of Accountancy at Glasgow University; and Mr. R. Stuart Filcher, recently retired West Midland Licensing Authority and former general manager of the department.
The terms of reference of the parse] are: "To investigate and to report on the policy, administration and operation of the municipal transport department in the light of the accumulated deficit, amounting, as at May 31,1951,, to 12.308.947, and to make such recommendations to the future policy and running of the department as they think fit."
The committee considered that all passenger transport undertakings should be exempted from the new increase in fuel duty. They also made a protest against this rise in tax to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
With this latest imposition, the increase in operating costs since fares were raised at the beginning of the year is £334,000 per annum. It was noted that since road fares had been increased, many people were travelling between the city and suburban districts by train, taking advantage of cheap-day rail fares. This raised the question of how near road fares were to saturation point, and whether further increases might result in loss of traffic.