The Provisions of
Page 48
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THE LONDON
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ParliamBeYnta°Tur CSoPrre:si pa ondent PASSENGER THE which has been presented in the House of Commons by the• Minister of Transport to provide for the establishment of a passengertransport board for the London Traffic Area and for the transfer to that board of various transport undertakings and interests and to make other provisions with respect to traffic in the area, is a formidable document of 68 clauses and nine schedules.
Long and controversial discussions in Parliament are inevitable, but the Government's intentions are to proceed with the Bin with as much expedition as possible and'in the hope that it may be passed before the end of July. Broadly, the principle which the Government claims to have observed in the proposals is the necessity of economic reorganization—cutting out all waste throrgh consolidation and reorganization of a most importaint part of the passenger-transport industry of the country. The Government's reply to the suggestion that high political principles may be involved is that there cannot be any if the traffic problem be looked at on its merits as a business matter in regard to which everybody has been preaching the doctrine of consolidation and coordination.
Power to Abandon Tramways.
One essential condition to be observed is that members of the board shall be people who have no particular bias in favour of one method of transport or another.
Whilst it is felt that tramways in the dense traffic areas cannot be condemned so long as they carry heavy loads from those areas, the case for tramways in the outer suburbs, where traffic is light, is weakened., The Bill, therefore, gives the board power to deal with the abandonment of tramways where desirable.
It is contended that co-ordination is impossible without unification of ownership and the whole measure is built upon this assumption and the consequent elimination of the competitive interests of different groups of shareholders.
A Business Management the Object.
As to the appropriate form of authority, it is significant that the Government has rejected as unsuitable any authority consisting of a municipality or group of . municipalities, or a Government Department, and has selected a specially constituted public board following the precedents of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Electricity Board and the Port of London Authority, the desideratum being a business management which can act immediately when occasion requires without those delays which are inevitable in municipal and departmental procedure. Appended is a general summary of the Bill:— The, Bill provides for the appointment of a new publictransport board which is to consist of Ave members, , including its chairman, to be appointed by the Minister, of Transport, after consultation with ti the Treasury. The Minister is required to select for appointment as members of the board,. persons who have had wide experience and have shown capacity in transport, industry, commerce or finance, or in the conduct of public affairs. . The board will take over the existing tube railways, the Metropolitan District Railway and the Metropolitan Railway, together with the•interests of any of these railivays in any railway owned jointly with any of the amalgamated railway companies.
• The board will also take over all the tramway undertakings in the London area, as well as the London General. Omnibus Co., Ltd., and the London bus businesses of other proprietors, so far as they consist in the running of stage carriages in the Metropolitan Police District, subject to the control imposed by the London Traffic Act of 1924. Thus complete consolidation is to be achieved. .
• It is proposed to acquire the tubes, tramways and buses belonging to4the Underground group of companies and the Metropolitan Railway, by means of an exchange of stocks. The consideration for other privately owned bus businesses can be discharged either by issues of stock or payments of cash to the proprietors. The local authorities' tramways are to be transferred to the board on the basis of the board paying annually the sums necessary to enable the authorities to meet the interest and redemption charges of their outstanding debts, but the local authorities can, if they so prefer, take stock issued by the board, instead of cash payments.
An Arbitration Tribunal.
The amounts of stock or cash to be issued in consideration of the transfer of theundertakings can be agreed between the new board and the authorities and companies concerned, subject to confirmation by a special arbitration tribunal to be set up, or, failing agreement, will be settled by that tribunal in accordance with principles laid down in the Bill (Clauses 6 and 11). The arbitration tribunal will consist of three commissioners to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor.
It will be the general duty of the board so to exercise its powers as to secure the provision of an adequate and properly co-ordinated system of passenger transport for the London Traffic Area and to administer all the undertakings transferred to it or which it may acquire as one consolidated undertaking. Subject to the approval of the Minister and the provision of suitable optional facilities, power is given to abandon tramways.
Improving Travelling Facilities.
Whilst avoiding unnecessary and wasteful competitive services it will be its duty to take such steps as are necessary for extending and, improving facilities so as to provide with the maximum of efficiency and convenience for the needs of the area. The board will be empowered, in addition to maintaining and improving the undertakings transferred to it, to acquire, by agreement, other transport undertakings in the area. The board will also have power to provide new road services within the area, and, subject to the provisions of the Road Traffic Act of last year, outside the area, so far as may be necessary or desirable in connection with its London services. The area of the operation of the board will, however, in general be the London Traffic Area, corresponding roughly with a circle having a radius
of 25 miles from Charing Gross. •
The board will not be concerned with long-distance services running into this area from outside, but no one, other than the board, will, without the written consent of the board, be permitted to carry any passenger in a stage or express, carriage if that passenger enters the vehicle at any place within the London Traffic Area for the purpose of being set down within that area. Provision is made under