Glasgow fares clash
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STRATHCLYDE regional Council is opposing the Government policy that PTEs should increase fares to match costs. In this it joins West Midlands and South Yorkshire Councils. The council's transport committee last week discussed a report by Mr Ronald Cox, directorgeneral of the PTE, which referred to ways of containing the executive's deficit. Councillor Tom Foulton, committee chairman, took issue with the statement in the report which said: "The present policy of central government is that PTEs should not allow the amount by which operating costs exceed fare revenue to be exceeded, and any increase in costs must be matched by increases in fares."
Mr Foulton said that while this was a statement of the Government's intention, it should not be taken as the policy of the regional council, which had not yet subscribed to it.
He added: "If the PTE came to us and said that fares should be increased, we would be obliged to resist this as a matter of police. We have already built into the PTE budget £3m to counteract inflation."
In his report Mr Cox said that in carrying out the Government's policy the PTE had had to raise its fares by 67 per cent in the past 12 months. As this had been considerably above the average rate of inflation, there had been a reduction in the number of passengers carried.