Summer Schedules Must Be Cut
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From Our Industrial Correspondent
TN the controversy over cuts in I schedules, which nearly led to another ban on overtime by London busmen, a new principle in the agreement which ended the dispute has been largely overlooked. That is the acceptance that during the summer months the number of passengers requiring bus .services drops quite substantially, and therefore schedules should be reduced during those months.
Mr. E. C. Ottaway, member of the London Transport Board who negotiated the agreement, said last week that the summer fall in passengers was not the only change in traffic patterns in recent years. The car and the television set were responsible for taking away many midday and evening passengers on Monday to Friday and all day on Saturday and Sunday.
Over the past 10 years Monday-toFriday passengers had fallen by some 40 per cent, on Saturday by some 50 per cent and on Sunday by 60 per cent. On Saturdays, with most people no longer at work, buses were needed mtlinly by shoppers. But the public, said Mr. Ottaway. would always prefer to use a car to take the shopping home. And on Sundays the car was rapidly taking the place of public transport and this applied all over the country.
Mr. Ottaway also gave a hint that London Transport would press for better facilities for buses in London's traffic. Public transport services in big cities must , be maintained and possibly increased, at least during the busy periods and in congested areas. This could be done only if the Government and the public authorities recognized that the place of public transport on the streets required special priorities. It would be essential to ensure that all the principal road arteries in central London were made into clearways for buses in the peak hours. "We cannot tolerate a whole lane being denied to traffic by the unloading of vans at these times ", he said. "There may also have to be some restraint on car use."