The Wider View
Page 32
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THERE is a fairly widespread feeling among the citizens of this hardy island race that many of the conferences that occur from time to time in foreign capitals and holiday resorts are "jollies for the boys" and largely a waste of money. In our insularity, we are apt to disregard, and even to distrust, attempts at solving problems on the international level, possibly because our experiences in the realm of politics have not always been too happy.
In the commercial field, however, the story is very different. The international conference provides a valuable means for practitioners in most professions to exchange views on problems which are common to most countries. Our island situation no longer insulates us from developments abroad, if it ever did, and there are matters which British representatives can both learn and teach.
This is particularly true in the case of passenger traffic operation and the International Union of Public Transport, which has its headquarters in Brussels, exists to meet the need. A number of the papers presented at its annual conference, held this year in Paris, is reviewed in this. issue .of. The-Commercial Motor, and they deserve a wide readership. It is, perhaps, a weakness of the international conference that its deliberations are seldom brought to the attention of those for whom they have most potential value. It is to be hoped that their publication here will stimulate interest and fresh thinking on problems that are by no means exclusive to Britain.
Passenger-carrying operators in this country have long complained that the traffic is falling. They may comfort themselves, perhaps, with the thought that the situation first reared its head in America, the land of the automobile, and that in certain cities there the rot has been stopped. Dr. F. Lehner's paper on the measures necessary to win back the customer, in the face of private transport and the compulsive attraction of television, is certainly deserving of close study.
Of equal importance and value is the joint paper by Fogliano and Paschetto on fleet modernization and economics. Except on routes carrying very dense traffic, where the cheapest vehicle is the articulated tramcar, the Italians are strongly in favour of the oneman-operated bus. Here, the tram has almost been relegated to the museum and the one-man bus is the subject of current negotiations with the unions concerned. It would appear that the economic survival of the bus business depends to a large extent on those negotiations.
Nor have the problems of manufacturers been ignored at Paris. Two papers were devoted to the use of new materials, particularly in the fields of longevity and low weight; there are few engineers who .would not care to find the pistons outlasting the blocks, and research is being carried out with that laudable end in view.
Large sections of the American and European transport industry pay close attention to trends revealed in countries other than their own, because the economic climate is seldom stationary. It is to be hoped that the British, too, will make full use of the international pool of information provided by the I.U.P.T.