'Public must come first'
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PUBLIC TRANSPORT has been served badly by the Conservative and Labour Parties over the past 35 years, and has been subjected to too many cuts in expenditure, Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen general secretary Ray Buckton told the Chartered Institute of Transport last week.
ernments are in power for five years — a transport system is with us for a lifetime."
He went on: "Blown about by the ebbs and flows of the political tide, and used as an easy target for cuts when the economy is going wrong — public transport has not been well served by either side over the last 35 years."
Mr Buckton accused governments of gearing the country's transport system too closely to the needs of the private car, and said: "It is easy to forget that 8.5m households have no regular access to a car."
He said that this meant half the households in Britain had no car, and said that, in spite of the great expansion in transport over the last 50 years, these people have a rougher deal now than they had then.
Mr Buckton said it was wrong for the disadvantaged groups, particularly in rural areas, to be prevented from making easy journeys to hospitals, schools, doctors, or shops.
"In a world of limited resources, everything is a matter of priorities. If we cannot afford a decent, universally-available public transport system and a system of private transport, then the public system of which all can take advantage must come first."
He suggested that the Government could provide the necessary finance if it wanted, and criticised its view that public transport should be financed and administered along the same lines as the private sector.