EDITORIAL
Page 13
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COMMISSIONING THE CASH
The whole concept of preserving rural bus services — long an article of faith for successive governments — is in danger of being undermined by the effects of the current economic crisis. The urban transport situation appears less vulnerable, since passengers are apparently accepting the need for big fares increases, and the rocketing cost of private motoring is likely to drive more commuters towards the bus than away from it. Even the depleted coffers in city treasuries are unlikely to imperil town services in the present circumstances, though they have obviously made many municipalities re-think the whole business of subsidies.
Everyone hoped that when the system of Transport Policies and Programmes was introduced to fit in with local government reorganization, this new method of financing local bus services through county and national funds vvould put these services on an even firmer footing. Alas, the economic recession seems to be having a reverse effect.
The reluctance of some county councils to back loss-making services has been strengthened by central government's desperate policy of chopping projects left right and centre in a bid to save money. We are rapidly being driven back to a situation in which the future of many rural services depends upon the ability of small operators to hang on and see the crisis through and upon the National Bus Company's determination "not to throw the baby out with the bath water", to quote finance director Guy Neely C',14 last week). Whether it can maintain its determination to cross-subsidize these services in the belief that, once lost, they may never be regained, depends on the Government's willingness to secure the working capital to see NBC through this bad patch and, more immediately, upon the readiness of the Traffic Commissioners to expedite fares applications and be generous in their judgments. It is an encouraging sign that — as reported in this issue at least one chairman of Commissioners has just given a municipal applicant a bigger increase than applied for. No less than manufacturing industry, essential services need the capital to survive the storm.