Things ain't what they used to be
Page 53
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LIFE ON THE buses has changed. Just because an Irish Sunday newspaper published a saucy story about alleged goings-on between conductresses and men in CIE, the Irish republican transport organisation, bus and rail workers banned deliveries of all the publications associated with the offending journal.
In London, saucy Dave Wetzel, chairman of the Greater London Transport Committee, said that more than four-fifths of those responsible for collecting fares on the buses had been reported for alleged irregularities in the past two years. But 21,223 reports caused only 113 staff to be dismissed or asked to resign. Fraud, mostly by passengers, was estimated to cost London Transport £25m a year, said Dave, but the figure has been put as high as £70m.
In Glasgow in days gone by things were vastly different. Tom Shields, writing in the Glasgow Herald about James Kelman's new book, The Busconductor Hines, draws on his own as well as the author's experience of Glasgow Corporation Transport when it was run on military lines.
The 10am defaulters' parade "in the wee castle above St Enoch Underground station" was the retribution that quickly followed transgressions. The accused had to turn out in regulation uniform with black tie and polished shoes. To be 20 minutes late in reporting for duty could cost a third of a week's pay.
Ex-conductor Tom Shields ducked his court martial for sitting with a girl on the upper deck,while five more than the authorised number of people stood on the lower deck and no fares were collected over a stretch of the route. He went to Spain instead.
WHEN HE IS not selling Nissan and Ebro vehicles as commercial vehicle sales manager of Kevn Ives Motors, Leicester, 29-yearold Richard Panter sheds his load by tuning or driving his 21year-old Brabham 8T6 Formula Junior racing car. He has rebuilt the Ford Cosworth MAE 997cc engine, suspension and chassis, and hopes for better luck this year than he had last year when he first entered the sport.
He is again contesting the Monoposto Racing Club's Formula Junior Championship in which he finished eighth last year. He says he is not seeking personal publicity but his club is keen that more people should take an interest in motor racing.