British transport compares with best
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SPEAKING to the Confederation of British Road Passenger Transport (CPT) in London last week, Transport Minister Norman Fowler congratulated companies like Metro Cammell and Plessey for winning overseas contracts.
British bus and rail services both deserve comparison with the best of the world, and few countries, he said, achieved the same value for money as Britain — for both the passenger and taxpayer.
• He emphasised that the Government's first priority was to control inflation and this could only be controlled by being decisive. "The Government would be failing the nation if it shirked tough decisions as the future depends above all on mastering inflation."
In response, the CPT president Ian Irwin urged the Government to review the 5p per gallon extra tax on diesel over petrol.
In other countries, he said, fuel supplies were guaranteed to the industry yet the Department of Energy urged fuel economies but saw no reason for granting priority to public transport.
Mr Irwin refered to the Transport Bill and welcomed the quality control provisions but said it was a pity the industry disagreed with much of its content. He told the Minister that the bus industry does not oppose sensible changes but it felt that the Bill posed a great threat by abandoning service in favour of profit maximisation.
CPT questioned why Bri tain was moving into a "freefor-all" approach when other developed countries were going a different way.
He .described the withdrawal of new bus grant as a body-blow for the industry and said that it required recognition of the effect of many recent impositions placed on it and a clear acceptance of its energy saving potential.