No Direct Service to Edinburgh Needed
Page 43
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
EVIDENCE by council representatives .1—+ from Larkhall, Carluke and Forth failed to convince the Scottish Traffic Commissioners, last week, that there was need for a direct bus service between the three towns and Edinburgh. An application by Mr. R. Wilson, Carnwath, to run a service was refused. The five objectors included British Railways and Lanark County Council.
For Mr. Wilson it was stated that existing bus services involved changes to either rail or another bus at Hamilton, Wishaw or Lanark. The Central S.M.T. Co., Ltd., had been approached several times to run a through service, but had refused on the ground that one was unnecessary.
The proposed 39-mile route would have a journey time of 1 hr. 40 min., compared with 2 hr. 15 min. by existing services, which did not take into account time wasted in changing. The traffic lost by the objectors should not weigh against the public interest.
Mr. J. W. Loudoun, for Scottish Omnibuses. Ltd., and Central S.M.T., said it would be impossible for every small town in Scotland to have a direct service to the capital. Many of these areas were unremunerative, and feeder services to the main routes were sensible bus operation.
The chairman, Mr. W. F. Quin, said they would not call on the objectors to give evidence, as Mr. Wilson had failed to make out a case. The evidence of need was weak; and the unsuitability of the route, coupled with the possible abstraction from existing operators, meant that the application must be refused:
AUTOMATION WILL INCREASE: FOREIGN CHALLENGE
" "THERE is no doubt that the number I of automatically controlled manufacturing processes will increase at an accelerating rate in this country. We have in many of the industries of our Continental neighbours some .outstanding examples of the application of the latest manufacturing techniques.
"The challenge to Britain is enormous and, with the European free-trade area just around the corner, it is urgent and vital," Mr. J. Buckman, general works manager of the Standard Motor Co., Ltd., told the British Institute of Management last Friday, NINE YEARS' FREEDOM
PRIVATE hauliers in India will have security against nationalization for at least nine years if their Government accept proposals put forward by the AllIndia Conference of State Transport Commissioners and Controllers.
Mr. D. D. Sun, deputy secretary of India's Department of Transport, presided over the conference, when it was urged that no nationalization move should be made until the end of the country's third Five-Year Plan.