Last Days of M.P.T.A. ?
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"CERTAIN activities of the Road Transport Executive made it apparent that our Association could not for long continue to exist, because the integration of road passenger transport was evidently to proceed and would result in the gradual elimination of local authorities as independent operators."
This gloomy forecast opened the report of the Municipal Passenger Transport Association for 1948-49, which was submitted to the Association's annual general meeting in Portsmouth on Wednesday.
Electricity Act Struck First
It was pointed out that the first transfer of a road-passenger transport undertaking to national ownership took place under the Electricity Act. 1947, and not the Transport Act, 1947. The Midland Counties Electricity Supply Co., Ltd., was the holding company of the Midland General Omnibus Co., Ltd., Mansfield District Traction Co. and the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Traction Co., and when the Midland Counties was nationalized, the three road transport companies were transferred to the British Transport Commission.
The report stated that an objection by Area B of the Association was responsible for the replacement of the general manager of the local Tilling Company on the R.T.E.'s working party in the north-east, by a full-time member of the Executive. No municipal operator was represented onthe working party. The general managers of the eight municipal undertakings in the area covered by the proposed scheme were interviewed by the working party to ascertain whether they would offer their advice on the physical question of how best to group the undertakings in the north-east.
A32 It was reported that Mr. A. C. Baker, C.B.E., had been nominated by the Association to the transport panel of the Transport Tribunal.
During the year under review, steps were taken for permanent contact to be maintained between the M.P.T.A. and the Aluminium Development Association. In March, a panel began work in Birmingham on the examination of light-alloy components that had failed in service.
The report referred to events that led up to the suggestion for the formation of a Federation of Municipal Passenger Transport Employers. The objects of the Federation were to regularize the position of member authorities and the Association in respect of the Joint Industrial Council for the road-passenger transport industry, to negotiate an agreement on the wages and conditions of skilled craftsmen, and to conduct any other negotiations on wages, salaries and conditions that were in progress or might subsequently be required arid were not within the purview of the N.J.I.C.
There was by no means unanimity among members on the proposal, but eventually a special general meeting on the subject was held and by 75 votes to 68 a decision to proceed was carried.
I. OF T. EXAMINATIONS
VJELL over 1.000 candidates again VV sat for the Institute of Transport examinations when they were held last
month. So far there are indications that the general standard of the papers is high.
Examination centres were established in many parts of the United Kingdom and in countries overseas. The Forces, too, co-operated in arranging for entrants to sit for the examinations.