\Tew Authority or Transport
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ROPOSALS have been lade by some organisations, 3tably the TUC, that a new ational transport authority iould be set up to co-ordinte and control pricing alicy, subsidy and investlent and to monitor the arformance of the nationa;ed industries and allocate eight traffic to particular modes.
The Government has pointed out, in effect, that these functions are, in the main, properly deployed by the Government, itself.
However, as an alternative it has proposed the establishment of a National Transport Council (NTC). This might take the form of a high-level forum, with the Minister as chairman and representatives of management, the trade unions, the industries both public and private, local government and consumers.
The NTC, it is suggested, would concern itself with finding ways of improving co-ordination and integration of transport policy and apply itself to a major study of inter-urban passenger services.
The NTC should also examine the co-ordination of parcels and small freight, review the proposed independent report on road appraisal techniques, consider the return on investment in public transport, advise the Government on priorities in transport expenditure, assume responsibility for the annual report on roads and for the possible other reports on transport as a whole.
But we can see absolutely no case for a National Transport Council, The Department of Transport already has sufficient resources to undertake all the proposed NTC tasks. At best it could have a mere advisory function.
It would be another cost commitment abstracting funds, from other transport purposes. CM