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Feed for the Guinea Pig

31st December 1948
Page 28
Page 28, 31st December 1948 — Feed for the Guinea Pig
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

ALTHOUGH there seems to be little doubt that the Road Transport Executive would have preferred to have left in abeyance the nationalization of road passenger transport until the acquisition of long-distance road haulage undertakings had been completed, the British Transport Commission, as the directing authority, appears to be determined to cast its net over the widest possible area in the shortest possible time.

At a conference of local authorities in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, last week, Major-General G. N. Russell. chairman of the Executive, stated that the B.T.C. had delegated to the R.T.E. the task of reviewing the country's road passenger transport system, with the object of preparing area schemes. A start was to be made in the north-east, and the Commission had instructed the Executive to draft a scheme for it.

Opposed to Interference Whilst Major-General Russell explained that the authorities concerned were invited to state their cases as representatives of the users of transport, rather than as operators, it was clear that the officials of some councils found it difficult to divorce financial considerations from the questions of principle under review. The representatives from West Hartlepool expressed complete opposition to any interference with the ownership and control of the municipal transport undertaking.

The Executive is acquiring road haulage undertakings in an atmosphere almost of frozen apathy, but it seems likely that the preparation of area schemes will engender some heat. Passenger transport touches the day-to-day life of the individual more closely than does road haulage, and opposition to nationalization will be forth coming from authorities other than those whose pecuniary interests as operators of municipal transport undertakings are endangered. The ground is set for a political battle of the first magnitude.

In preparing area schemes, the Executive will have to assuage intense local loyalty and pride, and the opposition is likely to be bitter. For many years, municipal authorities have operated remunerative transport services at low fares, and the ratepayers have benefited in both the short and long runs. Those benefits are not likely to be cast away with a smile.

Loyalty to Companies The travelling public has also been well served by company midertakings, and the close personal contact with passengers, maintained over many years, has established an affinity that will not easily be shaken by even the Transport Act.

It appears that in the north-east, which has been selected as the guinea pig, co-ordination will first be confined to road passenger transport services, and that integration with railway facilities will be a supplementary operation. Major-General Russell made it clear, however, that to the Commission, ownership of road passenger transport services was an essential ingredient of co-ordination under the Transport Act, and nothing less would be acceptable.

A sub-committee of experts is now to prepare a draft scheme, and further representations from public authorities and others will be considered. Clearly, however, the north-east is doomed to provide the prototype of a communal transport system, and no pleas, however eloquent, will deter the Executive from its course.

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People: G. N. Russell
Locations: Hartlepool, Newcastle

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