Grant-aided p.s. transport can save environment
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• The need to accept the principle of meeting capital costs for public transport with subsidies or grants was stressed by Dr W. J. Ronan, chairman, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, State of New York, when he delivered the annual overseas lecture to the Institute of Transport, on Monday. Dr Ronan's paper was entitled "Regional public transport—American approaches".
Much of the lecture was devoted to the development and the constitution of the MTA, and towards the end of his talk, he remarked that he believed that capital costs should not be met from the farebox, but from Government grants. Dr Ronan said it had taken years, including some deliberate neglect, to get this message home. Now the Authority received Federal, State and local grants.
Asked how the Authority had managed to obtain such grants, when the British Government had withdrawn its grants to British Railways for the South-East commuter services, thus forcing up fares, Dr Ronan claimed that it was the crisis situation which had been reached in America. Their experience with cars, choking city centres and creating an inability to move, while at the same time causing serious air pollution, had led to a change of heart, he said.
It was now a good policy to bring forward schemes for improving public transport. The benefits were not restricted to passengers—people who never used trains or buses benefited from an improvement to the environment, he claimed. Both major parties in America supported this policy—transport was not a political issue.
Dr Ronan revealed that transportation
authorities were pressing GMC to develop the gas turbine bus as a viable project—at the moment it was far too costly a bus. The development of the electric bus was also being encouraged. The speaker referred to the MTA's express bus experiment (CM February 26), incorporating the use of a reserved lane for inward-bound buses into Manhattan, and said they would also like to experiment with a Red Arrow type of bus service, though operating on exclusive lanes.
Describing the constitution of the MTA, Dr Ronan said it was a tri-state body, covering New Jersey, Connecticut and New York, and serving a population of 18 million. It was responsible for some 56,000 employees, though the MTA was itself a holding company. The board consisted of 11 members, all part-time, apart from the chairman.
One notable difference from similar authorities in other countries, and in other parts of America, was that the board members were elected as individuals—they did not represent local councils. In the past three years this policy had led to interesting repercussions, Dr Ronan said. The MTA had been able to raise fares and introduce developments which would undoubtedly have been vetoed had local authorities been represented, he claimed.
Manchester's bus lane
• Manchester's first "bus only" lane is to be opened in the city centre on Sunday. The lane, which is part of the first phase of a £64,000 extension to Manchester's city centre one-way street system, will cater for incoming services travelling along London Road.
Another bus-only route—which will be in the Oxford Road area—is expected to be introduced in the coming year.