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Wednesday, June 7, 1972
He said three steps had been taken so far to ameliorate the position.
These included the reduction and elimination of the payment of
royalty, the abolition of certain concessions to members of the armed forces
and Government uniformed personnel travelling on C.M.B, buses, and the
recognition that Government had a moral obligation to compensate the two
franchised bus companies for any losses they suffered as a result of the
breach of their franchises arising from the regularisation of public light
buses,
The Financial Secretary described these three measures together as
"piecemeal and short term remedies" to the C.M.B.'s financial position.
Long Term Solution
"The only long term solution," he said, "lies in revising the
present fares to a realistic level."
Giving the rationale of the fare variations, he said the flat fare
of 20 cents on the Lower Level Routes would coincide with an increase from
10 to 20 cents on the lower deck of trams.
"Thus there will be no encouragement to passengers to switch from
C.M.B. to the Tramways or vice versa on these routes, " he added.
Referring to the Hill Climbing Routes, the Financial Secretary said
the introduction of a flat fare of 30 or 20 cents would facilitate the
introduction of further one-man-operated buses.
"This," he said, "will reduce operating costs."
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As regards Suburban Routes, the fares are to be increased in order
to reflect more realistically operating costs on these routes, which are on
the whole, not at present profitable.
/Referring