Traffic Restrictions an
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FROM OUR PARLIAMENTARY CORRESPONDENT
HIGHER fares, stricter parking restrictions and possible payments for bringing vehicles into congested areas are the Government's immediate plans for improving public transport in London. The moves were announced last week by the Minister of Transport, who said that the Government was determined to "achieve a marked improvement in a situation which, without special measures, will manifestly get worse ".
Speaking during a Commons debate on London Transport, the Minister outlined the Government's broad objectives. The first was to call a halt to the deterioration of London's transport facilities of all kinds and to make the positive improvements necessary to meet the economic and social needs of a great city. They wanted to make sure that the traffic vital to those needs should have freedom to move.
The second objective, went on Mr. Fraser, was to ensure the best use of scarce road space, and the third—since the Government regarded public transport systems as essential—was to ensure that the necessary services were not only maintained but improved.
The fourth was to find means to achieve a more equitable distribution of the burden of paying for London's transport in all its forms.
To achieve these objectives complementary measures would be needed to discourage the use of private cars, notably at peak times, and to improve public transport.
Mr. Fraser said that the Government had decided that the most immediate and effective measure was a new policy towards parking in central London. Parking restrictions had to be used as a deliberate deterrent to the peak-hour car commuter and not merely, as in the past, as a means of keeping clear the road space needed for moving traffic. He was opening discussions at once with the Greater London Council, local authorities and others concerned on how quickly and effectively new measures could be taken.
Other possible measures of freeing the roads from congestion were being considered in detail, went on Mr. Fraser, including extra charges for the use of vehicles on the roads in central or other congested areas of London, and the necessary consultations would take place.
On the public transport side we needed better, quicker, more comfortable and more punctual services, said the Minister. The easing of peak-hour road traffic should go a long way towards achieving shorter-term improvements by helping to clear the roads, by encouraging people back to public transport, and by enabling transport provider's to reshape their services in the light of changed conditions.
Moreover, pointed out Mr. Fraser, measures of restraint could be so arranged as to ensure that, directly or indirectly, those who contributed to congestion in London would contribute to maintaining and developing the public transport services.
More Radical Methods
In the longer term, public transport would have to be improved in more radical ways—through new investment and by intensifying the effort devoted to research and development so as to achieve increased productivity and other far-reaching improvements in techniques.
Meanwhile it would still be necessary to accept some increase in fares, warned the Minister. This was necessary because the costs, particularly wage costs, of providing public transport rose more steeply than could be matched by increased productivity. Further deterioration in the financial position of the London Transport Board would make the eventual problems more difficult to solve.
He had, therefore, told the chairman of the London Transport and Railways Boards that the Government did not propose to ask for any further deferment of the fares increase originally intended to take effect earlier in the year.
Notwithstanding this increase in fares, the London Board expected to require some measure of financial assistance in