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Part of L.T.E. Plan Shelved

19th October 1962
Page 59
Page 59, 19th October 1962 — Part of L.T.E. Plan Shelved
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

LONDON TRANSPORT have given 1--A way on two proposals of their fivepoint "package deal" for modernizing and increasing the efficiency of their bus fleet.

As reported in The Commercial Motor last week, two of the biggest objections when a busmen's delegate conference turned down the L.T.E. plan were to the proposed introduction of " standee " buses with 35 standing and 35 seated passengers and to the raising of the speed limit from 30 m.p.h. to 40 m.p.h. on certain derestricted roads.

When talks between London Transport chiefs and the busmen's negotiating committee were resumed last week the L.T.E. reluctantly agreed to shelve, for the time being, its plans on both points. They realized that if they wanted agreement on the more immediately important problems—the introduction of larger Routemasters and of one-man buses on outer suburban routes—they would have to yield to the busmen's outright opposition.

That left the thorny problem of how the savings to be obtained from Routemasters and one-man buses were to be divided. The busmen had rejected London Transport's proposals which would have given the L.T.E. 60 per cent. of any savings and the busmen 40 per cent. The busmen pressed for a 50-50 share-out.

Before the long-drawn-out meeting finished London Transport had raised its offer to 421 per cent., but this, too, was rejected. The argument was due to be taken up again at a further meeting.

Meanwhile, London Transport had to face a strike by about 2,000 of its busmen last Saturday over the introduction of its winter timetables. They objected to the drastic reduction of week-end services, which, they claimed, cut their earnings.

Last-minute efforts to avert the strike by increasing the number of vehicles on some drastically reduced routes failed to move the men. Crews at five garages joined the unofficial strike. Men at 14 other garages increased the confusion when they refused to run over routes covered by the garages on strike.

The week-end cuts in services were introduced because London Transport found that there had been a drop of 20,000,000 in the number of passengers using buses at week-ends last year. The cuts average 3t per cent. on Saturdays and 2-1 per cent. on Sundays.

London Transport blame the spread of the five-day week and the increase in week-end motorists. But the busmen blame earlier cuts in services which, they say, have driven passengers away.

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