bird's eye view by the Hawk Paris municipal transport —
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RATP — is just going over to a new type of standard, interchangeable bus and Metro tickets with a magnetic insert for self-cancelling by passengers. The cancelling machines are identical on tubes and buses and when I had a few days in Gay Paree last week I found the system extremely quick and simple to use — especially as one can still buy camels— books of tickets at cut rate. One can hop from bus to Metro to get across the city quickly and conveniently.
Of course, Paris has the great advantage over London that it is more compact and its underground is more conveniently spread through the centre of the city, with stations at frequent intervals and a very easy system of interchanges. I had intended to take a trip by RATP coach to Versailles, but the excursion fare was about three times the equivalent British charge which did not entirely surprise me, having by then become used to paying anything from 30p to 45p for a cup of coffee.
So I thought I would go by normal rail service from the Gare St Lazare, where I proved just how independent I was by getting a ticket from a new-fangled press-your destination button and money-in machine, only to be told by the ticketcollector on the train that I had bought the cut-rate ticket for families of four! I must admit to a wicked feeling of satisfaction at the thought of adding my mite to the financial burden of French Railways.
As I found when returning from Versailles by scheduled bus, the self-cancel tickets can be used for long stages as well as city hops: one simply cancels two or three tickets.
This journey also provided an excellent example of the interchange facilities which people over here demand from time to time. The bus was turned at Pont de Sevres, on the southern outskirts of Paris, and waiting in the same station were a bus and a Metro train for the journey to central Paris. Great co-ordination, but I wonder what it costs?
• Who brought it?
Talking of trains, I should think York Trailer Co, who have a plant at Northallerton„ must be having a smile at the unexpected appropriateness of their campaign slogan — "If you've got it., a truck brought it" — for a big load recently carried by heavy hauliers Sunter Bros, also of Northallerton. It was a railway coach.
Not just any coach, mind you, but one of the restaurant cars from the Brighton Belle which is being set up as a restaurant next to the Black Bull at Moulton.
• Light (fingered) vans
If you operate a Ford Transit you might be surprised to learn that it's being viewed with suspicion. In fact they all are — and that's officiaL Scotland Yard, it seems, has told 21,000 police officers to keep a special watch on Ford Transits because they are involved in 95 per cent of the bank robberies in Britain. Police officers have been told that Transits should be viewed with suspicion; and because details of stolen Transits are quickly circulated, many are stopped for spot checks.
When Ford advertise the Transit's versatility I'm sure they don't have villainous uses in mind, but any manufacturer must be encouraged to know that his product is so much in demand for difficult and demanding work.
• Licence jam
Scottish Traffic Commissioner Alec Bimie found himself out on an embarrassing limb on Monday of last week when none of his colleagues turned up for a Glasgow passenger licensing hearing. It was, he admitted, a situation unprecedented in his experience, and he told road service applicants: "I just cannot say that an application is granted or otherwise, because without a colleague sitting with me I am not legally empowered to do so."
Determined not to waste valuable time, however, he proceeded to adopt a typically Bimiean solution by starting to hear the first application and assuring the court that he would discuss it later with the absent Commissioners. But things had not gone far when one of his colleagues arrived.
"Now", said Mr Birnie, "we can take decisions — unless of course we disagree!"
• Milk maids
Coming home with the milk may get a new meaning soon, and the "petticoat charter" may get a boost at the same time.
' After advertisements for the £40-a-week job of tanker driving appeared, a number of women turned up at an open night at the Milk Marketing Board's depot in Wakefield to find out more about the job.
Having shown them the ropes, a spokesman said: "Several of the ladies meet with our approval and they have gone away to think about it. If they decide they want to give it a try, we may well take them on as drivers." The Board decided to give women an equal chance with men to drive milk tankers because, like so many other operators, they're short of drivers. And milk drivers no longer have to pick up heavy churns from farms; they simply couple hoses to storage containers.
The MMB is apparently pleased to think that it is living up to the Govenment's hopes for the equality of women: "We feel that since these women will do the same work as men, they should be paid the same".