By The Hawk
Page 53
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BIRD'S EYE VIEW
State of the El In the House of Commons last Wednesday, Mr. Roger Gresham Cooke raised a question about the state of the El road. Many people will ask " What's that?" Well, it is the designation given to the Anglo-European highway which runs from London to Palermo in Sicily, via Southampton and Le Havre. The parts that Mr. Gresham Cooke is worried about are the A30 London to Basingstoke and the A33 between Basing;stoke and Southampton, and he was told by the Minister that the first-mentioned road will be replaced by a motorway by the early 1970s ", while the latter will be progressively improved by sections of new road.
I can report that the Norwegian section of El immediately adjoining the British section—that is. between Southampton and Le Havre—is in excellent condition. This, of course, is the twice-daily ferry service operated by Thoresen Car Ferries. I. gather that the company has invited Mr. Gresham Cooke, to inspect it whenever he pleases--an invitation that probably will be taken op in the autumn.
Air Corhpetition I had to smile at the last ,bulletin issued by Thoresen (the company calls it a RollThrough Freight Communique). It mentioned that so far this summer "passengers" bad included 150,000 racing pigeons making one-way trips to France. The paragraph ends: "We understood that all would be returning by air." British Railways used to carry all the racing pigeons abroad in baskets; now, I understand, the birds prefer to travel in special containers carried. by A. C. Jameson (Transport) Ltd., of Heywood, Lanes, on the Thoresen Viking ferries.
No Competition Last week our technical • editor, Tony -Wilding, received a parcel of literature measuring 16 in. by 11 in. by 14 in. by air from Sweden. He was told that LI 12s. 6d. had been paid on it. A BEA delivery sheet accompanying the parcel showed that this was made op of 7s. 6d. delivery charge from London Airport plus il 5s. -"customs entry and clearance through customs". Inquiry of BEA revealed that this was to cover opening, customs. inspection, entering documents and repacking. When it was pointed out that the parcel had not been opened the reply given was that this did not matter; the LI 5s. was a standard charge for samples and gifts less than 10 kg. in weight.
It would appear that BEA at least is not interested in small parcels. The impression given was that it was really better to use the the Post Office for this sort of thing. If this is the case, it would not be a bad idea for SEA to have a word with, their nationalized transport counterpart, SRS Parcels Ltd.
A Fishy Tale Apart from operating quite free removal service for the old-age pensioners of Morecambe, Mr. Fred Edmondson, managing director of F. Edmondson (Removals) Ltd., has undertaken some rather peculiar removals. He transported some dolphins from Manchester to Marineland in Morecambe (" Europe's First Oceanarium ") last year, and last week he was due to take three sea turtles from Marineland to Pinewood film studios. They, together with film stars Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck, are making a new film entitled "Arabesque ". We gather that in the autumn Fred will visit the West Indies to study the potential for road transport over there.
Hats Off Anyone who thinks the
passenger industry is a bit stuffy and never lets its hair down should have been with me at Bournemouth on Friday, when hair was not merely down but streaming in the wind. Bournemouth Corporation Transport's general manager, Ian Cunningham, with members of his staff and the transport committee, chose the open deck of one of their new detachable-top Eleetlines on a trip round the town and along the cliffs; representatives of manufacturers and Press were also in this breath-of-the-briny party. To Bournemouth's credit it didn't rain. The Eleetline was one of 10 MCW-bodied 74-seaters bought for dual use 10 more have fixed tops, and next year the fleet will get 20 Atlanteans similarly divided into fixedand detachable-roof models. •
Associations Daimler and MCW were joint hosts at the "handing-over" luncheon on the same day (see also page 32), and this turned out to be quite an affair of association. Bournemouth's mayor, Aid. Morris, comes from Daimler's home town of Coventry, and be revealed that his father had worked for the company for 25 years; and Daimler's deputy chairman, Mr. A. Whittaker, rev ealed that he happened to be genuinely on holiday in Bournemouth at the time of this handing over.
The mayor suggested to him that Daimler employees should be encouraged to holiday at Bournemouth and use the buses, as the transport department could do with the money: He also suggested that the absence of advertisements on Bournemouth buses was an "ad." for the town because of its rarity. Could be.