Blank Cheque ?
Page 3
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rr HE Socialists are in a dilemma. The competence of the Beeching report, within its terms of reference, is widely recognized as beyond reproach. So they are attempting to postpone its implementation by demanding a comparable review of road transport before any action is taken to stem the staggering railway Tosses. Such a further appraisal is necessary, they claim, to justify making far-reaching decisions on national transport policy.
After all the dogma which has issued from Transport House on how this great national industry should be run, such an admission of doubt has a strange ring. Would a Socialist government have the courage to implement the findings of such a survey if, unfortunately for them, it proved that Dr. Beeching had been too optimistic about railway prospects? The doctor has already expressed doubts about that third of the system which is neither obviously uneconomic nor immediately capable of earning its keep.
The transport user has already shown his preference for road services and, if left to his own choice, there seems no reason to believe that the basic trend from rail to road will change. Freedom of choice of transport is, as the R.H.A. has emphasized in its policy proposals to the Government, a fundamental principle. It is also the justifiable right of the man who pays for the service.
If, as Wednesday's Socialist statement (reported on page 13) suggests, they are asking for a blank cheque from the electorate as to their ultimate transport policy, many users will have little doubt as to what may happen to this freedom of choice.