AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

No Subsidies for Mr. Amos

13th October 1961
Page 83
Page 83, 13th October 1961 — No Subsidies for Mr. Amos
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

"1 BELIEVE we shall do better without subsidies than with them; and I certainly the nation as a whole will benefit," claimed Mr. James Amos when delivering the presidential address to the Institute of Transport in London on Monday. He did, however, add that this opinion was based on the proviso that the larger operators covered areas wide enough to make cross-subsidization effective and practicable, and worked with integrity and a full sense of public responsibility.

The main problem of making services pay while meeting all reasonable public requirements was a problem not of poverty but of prosperity, Mr. Amos claimed. It arose because so many people were better off and could afford to buy and run their own transport. Prosperity brought other problems and the public resented being asked to pay the full price for a service provided below cost for many years.

Members of every grade of the Institute were asked not to regard transport as a decaying industry, still less as one without a future. Private transport had grown so enormously in recent years as to be a challenge to all transport men, but it was now threatening to choke itself. Passengers were being increasingly won back to public transport by intelligent management, from private cars, which occupy over 40 times the road space per passenger compared with public transport. Relative to action taken by authorities to ease traffic flow, Mr. Amos considered that there were definite tendencies to reroute buses too often to the advantage of the private car and to the complete detriment and disregard of the bus passenger who, incidentally, the moment he alighted from a bus became a pedestrian and, therefore, a road safety problem.

rune Saving

In the interests of time saved—an important factor in the country's economy—and in that of personal safety, it was better that such people should be allowed to remain on the bus and be conveyed to their destinations by the direct and proper route to the city and shopping centre.

Such a practice may require improved facilities and amenities by operators because, if private car users are to be diverted to public transport, there must be adequate bus services of proper quality to ensure quick transit to the city centre. These measures must include such publicity and public relations as would ensure the elimination of suggested loss of status in travelling by bus.

The ever-increasing practice to divert public service vehicles to bus stations sited away from the town centre was fundamentally wrong, Mr. Amos insisted. It was reminiscent of the early days of railways when they were compelled to site their stations well away from town centres with results which were only too well known at the present time. Bus stations were a costly luxury for which the passenger must, in the end, pay and their proper siting, in cases where they could be justified at all, was of the highest importance in the public interest, and must be so regarded by all concerned.

Regarding the opportunities and problems which faced transport men today, Mr. Amos said that the main problem was painfully clear, namely, how public transport could continue to pay its way whilst meeting all essential requirements. These he enumerated as the provision of adequate services for the Customer, appropriate wages and conditions for the staff, a reasonable return on capital and the retention of the confidence and goodwill of passengers.

Despite these requirements Mr. Amos insisted that transport as a whole must pay its way and not be subsidized ultimately by the tax payer. Nothing succeeded like success, and conversely the lack of success brought in its train a lowering of morale which affected both management and staff.

Competition Questionable

Commenting on the doubtful solution of competition and the claims of smaller organizations and individuals, he questioned whether it was right that all forms of transport should continue to compete even in the most remote and sparsely populated areas regardless of cost, either to the operator or to the country. Even the well-administered Road Traffic Act of 1930, now replaced by the Road Traffic Act of 1960, took account of "wasteful competition " whether by road or by rail.

In no form of transport had charges kept abreast of the increased costs of operation, Mr. Amos added, which highlighted the question of how the earlier standards and quality of service could be maintained. Many passengers, for example, forsook the railways for other forms of transport long before the railways forsook them.

In the foreseeable future many previously held opinions and practices would have to be altered if public transport was to pay its way. The transport manager who regardless of cost continued to operate a particular form of transport solely because it had been run for the past 30 to 50 years, rendered no service to the country's economy. The public must be told that the continuance of such highly unprofitable services would lead to a position of further inadequacy and worsening of conditions for public, staff and operators alike.

The drop in passengers carried in rural and some other areas had meant that services which had never been profitable

were now making bigger losses. The drop in city areas meant that the profits on the heavy routes which had helped to carry the rural routes were themselves less than they used to be just when the need was greater. It was the job of the transport operator to bring these facts home to the public.

Cross-subsidization was basic in transport services of all kinds. It existed between the stages of a route and between routes and areas. It was thus imperative that the operating units should be large enough to enable the rough to be taken with the smooth, and facilitate and encourage further co-ordination. No less important, it seemed to Mr. Amos, was the inevitability, in the interests of greater efficiency and solvency, that some longestablished units and operators must either go into liquidation or come under the umbrella of a larger operator: This would bring to an end the doubtful claim that an operational unit must, solely for prestige reasons, continue in existence.

Whilst Mr. Amos wasin agreement to the paying of the best possible wages, he added that what really mattered was what was given in return for wages. He doubted if the present relationship between employee and employer was the best obtainable, and he considered this was a problem for members of the Institute, as well as operators and trade unions, to approach with an open mind. Strikes, unofficial or otherwise, were an anachronism in modern society.

Transport had put up its charges long after other industries and never bcfore, and usually much later than, a wages demand had been granted. Passengers tended to forget this and they must be properly informed.

Fares Level

Relative to the level of fares and adequate services the word " adequate' must clearly have some relationship to the numbers of people served and carried. Where so few travelled the cost per passenger increased and a seat left empt■ for a journey could never be filled. Transport was the most perishable of commodities, Mr. Amos emphasized, and if what was offered for sale was not bought and used on the day and at the hour provided, it was lost for ever.

The solution of smaller buses looked attractive until it was realized that on one or two journeys a day they would not carry all those who wanted to travel. Moreover, the present trend was for the peaks to become higher and the valleys lower, As a result more buses were required to do a lower mileage at increased costs. Where one-man buses were operated the wages cost of the small bus was no less than the standard singledecker, which had the great advantage of being fully interchangeable. It was Mr. Amos' view that the small bus had its use occasionally, but only exceptionally.

Tags

People: James Amos

comments powered by Disqus