Emergency Measures for London
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SOME of the suburban areas of London will
be completely without bus services from next Sunday, if emergency measures announced by the London Transport Board on Tuesday are implemented. The measures are an attempt to reduce the effect of the latest ban on overtime and rest day working as much as possible, and will involve the withdrawal of 40 of the 1,680 miles of scheduled route miles at present operated.
Some 45 of the 333 central bus routes will be withdrawn on weekdays, 43 out of 297 on Saturdays and 29 out of 232 on Sundays. In most cases the routes are paralleled by other services but in some cases whole residential units will lose their buses, seven days a week. Member of the Board, Mr. E. C. Ottaway, stressed that the measures would be "extremely flexible." The cuts could be altered or re-instated at short notice, garage by garage, depending on the availability of bus crews. For example, if overtime working were resumed this week at some of the garages supplying buses to "axed" routes, the axe would not fall.
On the question of whether private operators' vehicles would be hired to cover withdrawn services, or private operators be Allowed to operate over these routes, Mr. Maurice Holmes, chairman, stated that it was "open to the Board to take both these steps." No decision had been taken at this stage, however.