EEC wants more checks
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THE TOPICAL question of safety r of long-distance coaches has been of the European Parliament by two egulations governing the drivers raised at the September session British MEPs.
Both Labour member Barbara Castle (a former Transport Minister) and Conservative member Richard Cottrell asked the EEC Commssion whether any reinforcement of existing regulations was being considered in the light of recent "tragic accidents" involving Community coach and lorry drivers.
Mr Cottrell blamed an apparent lack of supervision of drivers' hours, inadequate controls at frontiers and lack of enforcement of existing speed limits.
A spokesman for the Commission replied that regulations were generally considered to be too rigid and inflexible and that there was no general desire to make them stricter.
It was up to the member states themselves to effectively enforce the rulings.
Rather than any increase in frontier checks, the Commission favoured checks "carried out in unlikely places" rather than at frontiers where they would be expected and therefore less effective.
The Commission agreed that speed limits were a problem. Efforts to establish common speed limits had proved abortive and neither experts nor the national Governments could agree on what speeds should be adopted.
Bearing this in mind, the Commission did not feel in a position to make any further proposals in this field as part of its transport policy programme. now forecast at film above forecast for the year at £267m.
Latest figures show that for the 20 weeks to May 21, average waiting times for buses is 10 per cent lower than the previous year, with only the Wandle and Watling districts recording a deterioration in service.
According to the GLC, LT's forecasts have been consistently pessimistic and it wants LT to explain whether its forecasts for 1984-87, with attendant reductions in bus services, should be revised.
LT's case for extending oneman operation will be considered in detail at the next transport committee meeting this month.