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PART II THE STAR FERRY FARE ISSUE
Government, before a decision is taken, to seek advice on the application of the Star Ferry Company Limited from the newly-formed Transport Advisory Com- mittee of which you are a member. It is within the competence of this Committee to report its views on the appropriateness of fares charged by public transport companies and to communicate with the public on this matter. The Chairman of the Committee has already publicly stated that he will do his best to ensure that the views of the public are communicated to the Committee and it may be reasonably assumed that members of the Committee will endeavour to make themselves fully aware of public opinion on matters referred to them'. It is to be noted that this letter also made no reference to the terms of the Ferry Franchise and the limits this might place on giving effect to public opinion.
62. On 12th January, 1966 Mrs. ELLIOTT presented a second petition pur- porting to contain a further 155,000 signatures in opposition to passenger transport fare increases. She was quoted in an English newspaper as saying, 'I am personally opposed to any kind of fares increase as I don't think the public can support it at this time. It's simply a case of the people's interest weighed against a few people who are by no means in need of the extra profit they wish to make out of the public'. She is also reported as having made a plea for all the details connected with the application to be published.
The Transport Advisory Committee
63. On 1st December, 1965 the Company's application was referred to the Transport Advisory Committee which has an unofficial Chairman and fourteen members of whom eight are private citizens and six are Government officials. This Committee considered the application, made further investigations and submitted a majority and a minority report on 17th March, 1966.
64. The majority report, signed by all but one of the Committee members, examined various aspects of the ferry company's application and recommended a revised fare schedule which is set out in Appendix 4, subject to a regular annual review of fares to ensure that profits were maintained at a rate of return on capital employed which the Committee considered to be reasonable. The effect of the revised fare schedule proposed was to increase the price of monthly tickets and first class tickets but to leave unchanged the price of 2nd class tickets.
65. Since both the majority and minority reports have been published, it would be superfluous to summarize the contents here. However it is of importance to highlight certain aspects of the two reports in view of the evidence before us that they were the subject of wide misunderstanding.
Majority Report
66. The Committee's report deals at some length with the main arguments of those opposed to an increase: namely that Star Ferry fare increases were not
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