STAGECOACH Ribble - the biggest bus operator in East Lancashire - is to appear before a public disciplinary inquiry for operating unreliable services.

The firm, with depots in Blackburn and Burnley and a base in Preston, will appear at Trafford Magistrates Court in July and could lose the right to operate some or all of its local services, as well as facing a hefty fine.

The reliability of the company was called into question following an investigation by the North West Traffic Commission and the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive earlier this year.

The investigation, carried out between February 22 and 26, reported buses belonging to Stagecoach Ribble and 12 operators across the North West running early and late as well as failing to run at all.

A further ten bus companies stand accused of anti-competitive price-fixing and market sharing arrangements in the Liverpool and Manchester areas. The inquiry, conducted by deputy traffic commissioner Mark Hinchcliffe, will have the power to prohibit operators continuing with some or all bus services if they have not stuck to registered timetables or if they are guilty of serious misconduct in operating those services.

A spokesman for the Central Office of Information said: "The public inquiry for poor reliability follows a monitoring exercise into the performance of bus operators in Greater Manchester where the reported observed failures of these operators ranged from 10 to over 50 per cent.

"At the public inquiries the deputy traffic commissioner will consider whether to take disciplinary action against the companies' licences to operate public service vehicles by prohibiting them from operating any or all of their registered local bus services.

"He will also consider imposing a financial penalty on the operators."

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