TOUR BUS LICENCE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30126, 9 May 1963, Page 17

TOUR BUS LICENCE

Amendments Refused

Midland Motorways Services. Ltd., has been refused an application to run tourist trips of three days, instead of the present four, and to increase the number of its tourist buses beyond the present three. The applications are declined "with some regret’’ in a reserved decision issued by the No. 9 Transport Licensing Authority (Mr J S. Haywood*. Tours of not less than three days could be reduced to little more than weekend excursions at the expense of regular operators, over routes not free from economic difficulties, the decision said. He was also in some doubt on the effect of a three-days’ tour on drivers’ hours, which affected public safety. the authority said. He agreed with one witness who described a Christchurch-Lake Te Anau tour as a "marathon trip.” There was no evidence to show that the company was unable to make tours with its existing licences or that the public was being deprived of vehicles for tours, he said If it found a demand f . tours which it could not carry out under its existing rights, it would receive a hearing for additional vehicles. “I have said before that the tours business. ’n the public interest, is of greater importance than those who provide transport, and therefore. provided the demand exists, the transport facilities will be provided under licence,” he said.