By Irvine Bell
For many years [about 60] in Britain, the Public Service Vehicle [PSV] "bus" / "coach" distinction was legally, minimum fare 1/- [one shilling - there were 20 shillings to the £1 (one pound sterling)] = "Express Carriage", minimum fare less than one shilling = "Stage Carriage".
Practically speaking, "Stage Carriage"
meant "Bus" and was for services
where the routes were generally short [few miles] and stops frequent
[several per mile] and fares were paid on the vehicle, while "Express
Carriage" meant "Coach" and was for services where
routes were longer, stops
very few and tickets generally pre-purchased.
Trolleybuses were, in Britain, not legally
PSVs, as they were a category in
their own right and generally covered by an odd mixture of railway,
tramway
and road vehicle legislation, so the Express / Stage carriage
distinction
did not legally apply. Practically speaking, all British trolleybus
services
had the characteristics of 'bus' services, hence 'trolleybus'
rather than,
say, 'trolley coach'.
British bus / coach legislation has been
radically overhauled since the
early 1980s with the de-regulation of first the UK coach industry,
then the
UK bus industry and then harmonising with European Union requirements.
When [I hope that it is not 'if'] trolleybuses
return to British streets,
they will be treated much the same as diesel buses, which are
now termed
PCVs [Passenger Carrying Vehicles] instead of PSVs.
The legal changes have some pluses and
minuses for me personally. When buses
were PSVs, their drivers, as public servants had to wear a distinctive
badge
and most drivers, including myself, wore their badges with pride.
To get a
PSV licence and badge, one of course had to pass a special driving
test, but
one also had to get referees to confirm that one was a decent,
sober, etc.,
character. Now with PCV licences, the only requirement is to pass
the test
and no character references are required and no badge is issued
any more.
On the other hand, I will not have to take
a special test to drive a
trolleybus now as my PCV [was PSV] licence will cover. Trolley
vehicles have
disappeared as a distinctive legal vehicle category in Britain
and [I must
presume], across the whole of the European Union. By the way,
trolley
vehicles legally used to be defined in the UK as 'vehicles propelled
by an
external source of power' - there was no reference to electrical
power as
such.
This page entered 13 JL 1999
