Co-ordination in the new dispensation 5.31 How will opportunities for

20th September 1968, Page 220

20th September 1968

Page 220

Page 225

Page 220, 20th September 1968 — Co-ordination in the new dispensation 5.31 How will opportunities for

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closer co-ordination be enhanced in the new sphere? Taking the NBC first, the common ownership of Tilling and BET bus companies inherited from the THC will facilitate the development of co-ordination between the companies themselves, the further development of interworking arrangements, the adjustment of boundaries and like matters.

5.32 Furthermore, and this is a point of extreme importance, companies in the ownership of NBC can be grouped together in regions with common regional chairmen who are able to take a broader look over a wider area, without prejudicing parochial prides and loyalties. This process will indeed have been largely completed by the THC before the NBC takes over on Vesting Day.

5.33 Regional grouping will in turn help with finances and fares structures and enlarge the possibilities of getting a more balanced mix of rich and poorer territories—a principle which is absolutely vital to the survival of adequate services not merely in rural but in all non-urban territories.

5.34 Here mention must be made of the fact that (regrettably Some would say) the Scottish Bus Group is to pass to the newly created• Scottish Transport Group and thus be separated from the bus companies in England and Wales with whom they• have worked so closely for so many years. But the NBC will inherit from the THC the latter's Bus Federation which (like the THC Freight Association on the haulage side) links together all the bus companies now within the ownership of the THC in England, Wales and Scotland.

5.35 Taking Britain as a whole the Bill places a duty upon:—

(a) the National Bus Company and the Scottish Transport Group to co-operate with each other; and for (b) the NBC and STG to co-operate with (1) London Transport, (2) British Railways, (3) Passenger Transport Executives; (c) the PTEs to co-operate with the NBC and STG.

5.36 Furthermore, the Traffic Commissioners will retain their co-ordinating functions over the whole of the country except for these parts (initially the four conurbations) where their writ will cease to run.

5.37 Within a PTA area, integration can be maximized because, once the Minister has made an Order, it will have sole control, through its PTE, over the whole of the designated area.

5.38 This is the grand plan. It aims to bring together individual operators where they most need to be together without destroying their individualities, or undermining their viabilities, and without creating monoliths, obliterating financial disciplines or sapping local prides. Given the necessary goodwill the plan (Massachusetts notwithstanding) is one which could provide a meeting point for those who are devoted to individuality and enterprise and those who feel the need to carry co-ordination one step further than is possible in present circumstances—and above all to do something,about the major conurbations, which present a problem that must soon be dealt with regardless of political theories and prejudices.