HOW LONDON-AREA COACH SERVICES ARE BEING DISORGANIZED
Page 65
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Correspondence with the Minister Regarding Difficult Restrictions— The Whitsun Muddle — Seven Green Line Licences Refused
TN our issue for last week we pub
fished details of a letter, addressed by the Motor Hirers and Coach Services Association to the Minister of Transport, in which complaints were made about the administration of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, in the Metropolitan Traffic Area. Tbe Minister has caused the following reply to be sent by his Ilepitty Perm anent Secretary, Sir Henry H. Piggott, to the secretary of the M.H.O.S.A. :—
" Sir,—I am directed by the Minister of Transport to refer to your letter of the 18th May relating to the exercise by the Traffic Commissioner for the Metropolitan Traffic Area of his functions in respect of the issue of road service licences.
"I am to point out that Section St of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, provides a remedy, in the form of an appeal to the Minister, to any person who being an applicant for the grant of a road service lieence is aggrieved by the refusal or failure of the Traffic Commissioners to grant the licence, or with any condition imposed by the Commissioners. The Minister feels hound to deprecate the fact that in these circumstances a letter such as that which he has before him should have been addressed to him, and published in the Press, by your Association.
"In view of the directions which the Minister has issued to the Traffic Commissioner for the Metropolitan Traffie Area, and which he has caused to be published for the information of operators and others, and in view alsa of the Minister's repeated warnings, that neither he nor the Traffic Commissioners could be regarded as
in any way bound by the action of operators of public-service vehicles in the past, particularly in respect of services instituted since the introduc tion of the Road Traffic Bill, the Minister fails to find any justification for the assumption in the fourth paragraph of your letter that there would be no interference with the normal operation of previous years.'"
To this letter the M.H.C.S.A. replied at length a few days ago, suggesting that the enforcement of the Restricted Streets Orders in respect of vehicles not operating as short-stage buses would not have become necessary but for the Putting on the streets of large numbers of motor coaches, in defiance of the Minister's warning, What, the letter asks, will be the Minister's attitude towards appeals that are likely to be made by operators who' having applied for licences before March 31st, are granted in May or June licences containing so . many restrictions as to the picking-up of passengers as to make it impossible for them to conduct their business as advertised early in the season's
At a meeting of the management committee of the M.H.C.S.A. held last week, the inconvenience Caused to the travelling public on Whit-Monday was discussed and the following resolution was passed :— " That this Committee asks the Minister of Transport to consider the issue of regulations to enable crkners of public-service vehicle to cope with
the publicdemand for transport on Saturdays. Sundays and holidays and to consider advising the withdrawal of all restrictions on motor coach traffic throughout Great Britain from 1 p.m. on Saturdays to midnight on Sundays or on Mondays if the Monday is a public holiday."
Owing to ill-health, Mr. M. Logette,
managing director of G.B. (Motor Tours), Ltd., London, who has clone such excellent work for the Motor Hirers and Coach. Services Association, has been obliged to resign from his position as chairman of the management committee of that body. Mr. F. A. Phu, of the 141.T. Co. 33rockley, London, 8.E.4, who for long has served actively on the committee, has been elected to the chairmanship. Mr. Logette will continue on the committee.
An important happening in the London area since our last issue closed for press has been the announcement by the Traffic Commissioners for the Southern Area that the applications by Green Line Coaches, Ltd., for road service licences for seven of its existing routes were refused. The routes connect the centre of London with Maidenhead, Windsor (via Slough), Windsor (via Staines), Ascot, Sunningdale, High Wycombe and Cheshain, and some 50 coaches are affected. Green Line Coaches, Ltd., is .appealing, and in the meantime continues to run the services. The Premier Omnibus Co., Ltd., has received licences for the London-Windsor route, but with restrictions which make the service a 20-minute express service, instead of permitting a 10-minute frequeney, and confine the stopping places to Colnhrook, Slough, Eton and Windsor. The company is appealing.