Parliament Prepares to Reshape the Transport Commission
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FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
WHILE the threatened railway 'strike blankets everything else in the 7vbroad national transport picture,things are happening behind the . scenes at Westminster. which may well make big news later in this Parliament.
On the railway front, Ministers are making •their dispositions. The permanent emergency committee, incorporating many Whitehall depart. ments, has ,been alerted.Plans will now be made to keep the essential. services' going. .
Pressures for reductions in fuel tax hare begun and Mr. Amory has said he has received representations from the Joint Fuel Tax Committee for the Passenger Road Transport Industry and froni local authorities. It' was pointed out to him that the tax puts a huge burden on local authorities.
Action on B.T.C. Soon There are hints that Mr. Marples may -be ready to do something in the next two _or three months about the British Transport Commission.
He has before him two memoranda from Conservative back-bench groups, the object of which is to ILO the Commission concentrate on running the railways. without being sidetracked.
It is, in other words, a plan for partial denationalization and there is a growing feeling among Tory. M.P.s—refreshed by the country's third succeSsive vote against
• nationalization—that something ought to
be. done. . . . One idea is that the Commission should be told to dispose Of their ships-they • made a:profit of L2.3m. last year. They would, under. the backbench. plan, he
• sold.back to the shipping companies—and their total value is in the region of 1,18m. At the same time the wharves, docks and harbors, worth more than 180in.,. and the inland waterways, valued at more than t20M.. and the hotels and catering 'services, worth '£11rrt., would be hived off.
Ships Might Be, Sold Ships and harbour' facilities might be • sold to private concernS, .and. railway hOtels, refreshment rooms and, the .Iike
• 4o come under 21-year leases for development by catering and hotel interests. The meals on trains, it. is suggested, might be handed over to the Pullman Car Co.
Under the plan a new Waterways Board would take over the canals.
Then, with the Commission free tp concentrate on running the railways, its own structure would be overhauled drastically, with a good deal of decentralization, resulting in the B.T.C. merely handling the finances.
All this would be combined with genuine streamlining of the railways themselves. , Uneconomic branch lines would be.closed down even more quickly, and freight traffic handled .intelligently, with modernized marshalling yards and goods depots properly planned.
The object of this part of the exercise would be further integration of road and rail traffic.
E4 Things cannot be allowed to drift Muth longer, the back-benchers say. Now that they are conscious of the voters' dislike of nationalization, they say a definite decision should be made on the nationalized industries—whether they, arc to', be accepted tamely and allowed to bumble on losing money hand over fist, or whether they are to be made to work properly.
The first essential, of course, is to see the trains run at all.
TREASURY PRESSED ON FUEL TAX rLATMS for the abolition of duty on oil fuel were pressed at the Treasury last week by a deputation representing the road passenger transport industry. Members came from the joint fuel tax committee of the Municipal Passenger Transport Association, Public Transport Association, Passenger Vehicle Operators' Association and the Scottish Road Passenger Traniport Association.
The committee have launched a campaign for support, and written to M.P.s, local authorities and other organizations. The present tax is said to add 10 per cent. to bus operating costs.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer was non-committal in the House of Commons last week when asked by Mr. Frank Allaun (Lab., Salford East) to consider reducing 'or removing the duty.
MORE STRIKES IN 1959 NO TIGHTER LICENSING
A N attempt by Mr. G.. Darling (Lab.,
Hillsborough) to pe r suade the Government to tighten up the licensing of commercial vehicles was resisted in the House of Commons, last week, by Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport. Mr. Darling wished licences to he withheld from operators who did not possess adequate garages or maintenance facilities. Mr. Marples thought the existing law met the need.
w/Hu_sr stoppages and time lost as IT a result of strikes declined generally last year, troubles in the motor industry increased, the Ministry of Labour stated last week. The number of days lost rose from 160,000 in 1958 to 465,000 last year, and the number of men taking part in stoppages more than doubled to 157,600.
There was a total of 135 stoppages, 51 more than in the previous year.