L.T.E. Concession on Routemaster Plan
Page 40
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
ONDON TRANSPORT made yet 1—+ another concession last week in a final effort to get agreement with its busmen and to get £1,000,000 worth of new Routernaster buses out of storage and into service.
At another all-day meeting with the busmen's negotiating committee of the Transport and General Workers' Union, they agreed to raise the bus crews' proportion of any savings achieved by the operation of the larger buses from 421 per cent to 45 per cent.
This works out at a penny a shift more —from ls. 7d. to Is. 8d.—and was enough to get an undertaking from the eight-man committee that they would unanimously recommend acceptance of the new terms to a busmen's delegate conference.
After the meeting, L.T.E. chiefs hoped there would be no further difficulties from the delegate conference and that they would be able to introduce the first 70 of the stored Routemasters at Edgware and Harrow Weald garages this week.
The terms will certainly not please the militants among the busmen who have been pressing for a 50-50 share-out and for a greater proportion of the busmen's share in better conditions rather than more cash.
For London Transport the introduction of more Routemasters is a serious matter. They twice put off the date when the 70 buses were due to go into service. Mr. Brian Harbour, a member of the executive, said last week that they had now 180 new buses representing £1,000,000 in capital lying idle. Talks about their introduction had been going on for more than a year.
Yet the paradox about these longdrawn out negotiations is that there are more than 1,500 Routemasters already in service in London. But these are buses which have replaced even larger trolleybuses and the payment of any extra money has not arisen in their case. But their crews will get the extra money as well as soon as agreement is reached.
In addition to the 64-seater Routemasters, the provisional agreement also covers the even larger, 72-seater RML Routemasters and the operation of oneman buses on outer suburban routes. When these have been agreed, negotiations will still have to continue about the introduction of experimental " standee " buses and the raising of the speed limit from 30 to 40 m.p.h. on certain routes.