NEW BUSES AND OPERATING METHODS FOR L.T.B.?
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
ODIROPOSALS to revolutionize London 1 bus operations, particularly in the rash hour, were put to the Phelps Brown Committee of inquiry into London busmen's pay and conditions when it resumed its bearings on Tuesday. Some of the ideas have been discussed with the Transport and General Workers' Union over the past three years—and rejected by the men. But they have never before been spelt out in such detail.
Mr. E. C. Ottaway, the Board's member responsible for bus operations, told the committee that they would like to experiment with a number of new vehicles. One would be a standee bus with a total capacity of up to 90 passengers-30 seated and 60 standing. There would be no conductor and a uniform fare. Passengers would enter by a " passimeter " entrance where they would pay their fare into a slot machine. The driver would supervise the entrance of passengers.
For longer distances during the heavy part of the peak for which a number of fares would be needed, there could be a standee bus carrying up to 70 people, of whom about half would be seated. The conductor, too, would be seated behind a desk at the rear and take fares as the passengers entered the bus.
For normal close-headway services, Mr. Ottaway said there was considerable scope for the use of larger-capacity double-deck vehicles, possibly of a front-entrance design. But he said the Board would not attempt to use larger buses so as to increase the interval between buses in the peak to more than 10 minutes. If the Board's views proved to be correct, following experiments which they would wish to carry out in the immediate future, it would eventually be possible to operate some 4,000 double-deckers with a seating capacity of 70 or more with substantial economies in the number of buses required and crews to operate them.
In the suburban fringe of the central area there might well be considerable scope for one-man-operated vehicles which might eventually approach 600 in number. In the country area the number of one-man single-deck vehicles already in use might be increased to a small extent. But he proposed a new kind of double-deck vehicle of front-entrance type, so designed that the upper deck could bc closed during off-peak periods, when it would be operated as a one-man bus. He considered this the most hopeful way of matching crew and vehicle to the changing pattern of traffic throughout the day. Some 700 vehicles of this type could be usefully incorporated in the country area fleet, he suggested.
The Board also wished to experiment with a few further one-man buses operating express services on certain routes. This would be a trial of a procedure which was now under active test in Paris.
Mr. Ottaway said that the Board operated some 7,600 vehicles regularly on Monday to Friday services last summer. His proposals would enable the work to be done by about 7,100 vehicles, at the same time the number of seats available to passengers during the peak hours would be increased by 10 per cent and the overload capacity at other times to meet exceptional circumstances would also be greater. Some 1,400 fewer staff would be required but this was less than the number of additional staff required to operate a shorter working week.
The shorter working week was one of a number of proposals to improve bus men's pay and conditions outlined by Mr. Ottaway in return for co-operation in introducing new methods of working. These included an extra three days annual holiday for staff with 10 years' service, improved sickness and pensions schemes, improved safety allowances and a system of efficiency payments which would eventually give drivers and conductors an extra 25s. a week on average. The efficiency payments would depend on the type of work done by the crews.
They would be based on the improvements in the overall receipts on the road services side of the undertaking and would be distributed to individual crews a,ccording to the level of receipts which they themselves had taken. Crews would also be paid a varying sum according to the type of vehicle on which they worked.
At the start the average additional payment would be of the order of 10s. a week.
Since the economies to be derived from the scheme could not be secured immediately the cost would have to be met temporarily from an increase in fares. But the Board were satisfied that the scheme would be fully self-financing in due course and in the longer term should result in somewhat lower fares than would be possible without it as well as a markedly better quality of service. Mr. A. G. Evershed, the Board's chief financial officer, told the Committee that the total cost of the wage increases and improvements in conditions of service which must be contemplated would be about £7,500,000 a year. The greater part would have to be met out of an increase in fares. He added that sometime between 1964 and 1965 it would be neces sary to increase fares so as to raise revenue by at least £10m. a year.