Case for a Scotth • ansport Board
Page 80
Page 81
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE establishment of a Scottish Road Passenger Transport Board and the strengthening of local authorities' powers to take effective action to deal
with congestion in urban areas caused by the growth of the use of private cars. These were two suggestions made by Mr. W. F. Quin (recently retired chairman of the Scottish Traffic Commissioners) in a paper, "The future of road passenger transport in Scotland ", which he read to the Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association conference at Turnberry on Wednesday.
It might be true to say that the licensing system had worked well, said Mr. Quin, but no one could claim that, operationally or financially, the industry was in good shape. It was fair to admit that in Scotland the pattern was favourable when compared with the remainder of the United Kingdom; but the picture for the whole of Scotland was only good in parts. The favourable image was very much due to the structure of the industry in Scotland, where the Scottish Omnibuses Group controlled the major section.
The picture of public transport in Scotland was not without hope, provided that steps were taken to improve it both operationally and financially.
Scottish Omnibuses represented roughly 60 per cent of the total vehicle strength, the four municipalities 30 per cent, and private operators the remaining 10 per cent.
Limited Co-operation There was a limited degree of co-operation between undertakings. Co-ordination was generally confined to that imposed by the Traffic Commissioners. There secrned to be little provision for municipally-owned transport bodies to use Scottish Omnibuses vehicles for peak-time duplicates and vice versa. There seemed to be no effort by municipal undertakings to use private vehicles as duplicates, It might be worth while exploring this latter possibility which could be of mutual advantage to the operators concerned.
No examination of Scottish passenger transport was possible without reference to the Highlands. which presented a problem unlikely to be solved along normal commercial lines. Transport in the counties north and west of Inverness, and in other areas of the country, could only continue on the basis of a direct subsidy from Government sources or B46
cross-subsidization from large operators. There seemed to be agreement among the various bodies which had examined the problem in the past 10 years that the establishment of a Highland Transport Authority would provide a solution.
Time for Action In an age when economic planning was accepted by the main political parties, and many Governmentappointed committees had reported on transport, it seemed time to leave the realm of theory and move into the field of action. In this context, surely, transport problems of Scotland could only be dealt with by the creation of a Scottish Transport Board on lines similar to that of the London Transport Board.
The position of independent operators would have to be safeguarded. They would continue to operate their licensed services on existing routes and in their territory, or be acquired on terms similar to those acquisitions carried out in the past 10 years by the Scottish Omnibuses Group.
Many people at the conference would recall the area scheme provisions of the 1947 Transport Act. The British Transport Commission, for some strange reason, decided that the first area scheme should be launched in the North-East area of England and after the proposals ended in deadlock the scheme was finally withdrawn. Why was Scotland not chosen for this experiment? Edinburgh was at that time the only local authority which did not accept the idea of an area scheme in Scotland. A Scottish transport authority of the type envisaged would have controlled almost 90 per cent of the Scottish road passenger transport interests. In retrospect it seemed an opportunity to rationalize road passenger transport in Scotland was lost.
The composition of a Scottish transport authority would be on lint similar to other public bodies such a the electricity and gas boards. N difficulty would arise in finding soil able members of such a bod] Advisory committees for variou regions would meet the question c public interest, These committee would be purely advisory in charac ter. Committee control as practise by the municipalities would cease an operational responsibility would b vested in the managerial executives c the areas concerned.
There were so many obviou advantages to the establishment of Scottish Transport Board that on hesitated to enumerate them. net was the question of savings in cap tal expenditure by more economic us of vehicles. Common use of garage, depots, equipment, repair and main tenance services, and probably redu( tion in staff would effect economic! There would be savings on the pui chase of land and buildings.
Bulk purchasing of supplies coul take place. More attractive condition of employment could be offerec together with provision of superar nuation and other fringe benefit (both of which at present were onl enjoyed by municipalities). Joir wages regulating machinery could b set up. Road and rail co-operatio on the provision of passenger service
uld be achieved. A new fares .ucture could be set up based on ileage; rural transport would be bsidized and streamlined. Private )rk and school contracts could be ;dertaken by the board.
It was not suggested that the ration of a public authority for ssenger transport in Scotland would lye Scotland's problem but it )uld enable the transport assets of e country to be used to the maxium advantage.
A Scottish Transport Board might !II be created and many internal oblems resolved; but in the matter
of urban and inter-urban traffic a more deadly threat faced public transport. This was the private motor car. There should be no ambiguity about this; the private car was the deadly enemy of public transport. It had abstracted passengers from public services, created congestion at peak periods, prevented (even at nonpeak periods) the public service vehicle maintaining its scheduled timetable. The indiscriminate parking of cars in cities and towns was fast approaching the time when little or no public transport would be required. It was argued that an improved road system would meet present-day needs. By no stretch of imagination could the most revolutionary road programme keep pace with the increasing number of private cars. What was true of London today would, without doubt, be true of the cities and towns of Scotland tomorrow. Scotland was better placed, however, to meet the challenge than were the urban areas of the south, provided that action was taken now by the Government and by local authorities. The challenge could be met by the creation of a Scottish Transport Board, decentralized for operational purposes. The Transport Holding Company should make representations to the Minister of Transport urging the introduction of appropriate legislation to enable the THC to promote such a scheme.
Additional powers should be granted to local authorities, not only to control the indiscriminate parking of cars but also to control their routes through cities and towns,