Still Hope for 304t. Four.wheeters A LTHOUGH so far the Minister
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of Transport has been unsympathetic, there is still hope that permission may be secured to build four-wheeled publicservice vehicles up to a length of 30 ft. Mr. Eric D. Croft, secretary of the Public Transport Association, expressed this hope in a lecture on the Association's work, to members of the Omnibus Society last week.
He explained the part played by the Association . in representations to the Minister to increase the overall width of buses to 8 ft. Mr. Croft said that as a result of pressure originally exerted by the Association, active steps were now being taken by the Licensing Authorities in an endeavour to secure the staggering of working hours.
Proposals for the standardization of controls in drivers' cabs of public-service vehicles had been submitted to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and it was likely that an agreement would shortly be reached.
A memorandum had also been sub
mitted to the Postmaster-General to counter the proposal that trolleybus and tramways undertakings should be made to convert existing equipment to avoid interference with sound or vision broadcasting. The Association pointed out that the cost of fitting additional protective devices should not fall on operators. whose vehicles and equipinent .fully complied with the statutory requirements when they were introduced into service.
Although he said that nationalization was receiving the active consideration of the Association, Mr. Croft refused to comment on the question.
At the beginning of this year the P.T.A. had 429 members, comprising 122 company "'operators, 29 municipal undertakings, 2 extraordinary members, 157 contractors, 107 associate members, 11 overseas members, and 1 honorary member. The Associaton was formed in 1943 from an amalgamation of the Omnibus Owners Association and the Public Service Transport Association.