Professionally run CTAs here to stay Mrs. Castle
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III:local authority Midlands w have a Conurbation Transport Authority, though its structure, exact area and the degree control have yet to be decided. Announcing this in Birmingham on Friday, Mrs. Castle said the West Government decision to make capital grants for urban transport developments marked a revolutionary change. "We need revolutionary changes", said the Minister. "They should not be imposed, but should evolve out of the needs ol cATA4VI LE
before a private meeting with representatives of local authorities, regional bodies and independent transport operators, among them Mr. J. W. Womar, Midland Red's new general manager, whose company is vitally concerned with the economic and other consequences of the projected CTA.
Mrs. Castle said her earlier meetings at Manchester, Newcastle and Liverpool had strengthened her view that a joint policy board was needed at the top, but operation would be entrusted to a professional board. An advisory board alone was not enough. The responsible board must have an execu tive and operating role.
The CTA concept, said the Minister, was not ideologically motivated. It was based on a technical assessment of what needed to be done. "The pattern of ownership will vary", said Mrs. Castle. "It may involve combination of some existing operators. The CTA could have direct operational ownership and control of enlarged bus fleets."
The problems of commuter transport in cities were remarkably similar in other countries she had visited. The United States, she stressed, had had to create new structures to deal with the problem.
Mrs. Castle said she was opposed to operational subsidies but capital grants for approved interchange facilities were a different matter.
To a query by a CommeRcIAL MOTOR representative on the long-term viability of CTAs, Mrs. Castle replied confidently "I am quite sure that any successor Minister of Transport, of any party, would not wish or dare to interfere with the CTAs."
Earlier, Mr. Womar outlined the views he would convey to the Minister at the private session. If the CTA was to be an advisory or planning or co-ordinating body it might be a very good idea, he said, but if the Minister was minded to set up an operating CTA, taking over compulsorily all the operators, whether private or municipal in its area—in other words a Midlands version of the London Transport Board— then "Heaven forbid!"
Mr. Womar suggested that despite the plethora of brains at the top the London Transport services were in a class by themselves—the Lower Third. "The reason is simply this: they are too big, out of touch with their passengers and run by their employees."
Midland Red carried 150m. passengers a year during the four peak travelling hours each day. "It does not need an operating CTA to tell us that what is needed here is priority for buses— the greatest benefit for the greatest number."
Mr. Womar dealt with criticisms of his coin pany's services. It had introduced a number of limited-stop express services from Birmingham to Kidderminster, Leominster, Evesham, Redditch and Walsall, and more were to follow, in an attempt to attract motorists back to its services. An agreement on the staggering of peak hours should be possible without an operating CTA.
Mr. Womar said it had led the field in comfort and manufactured its own vehicles for more than 40 years. The brake on progress had been the Ministry of Transport, though, to be fair, "the present Ministry are far more progressive, but they have 40/50 years of obstruction to catch up on".
Restrictive practices by the unions, Mr. Womar continued, had prevented the company from introducing one-man operated buses as fast as it would wish. This, again, could be put right without an operating CTA.
Though Midland Red's costs were appreciably lower than the majority of municipal undertakings, the company's fare levels had been criticized. "In this context", said Mr. Womar, "the company has a moral responsibility to maintain a high proportion of unremunerative services, some urban and some rural, and this can only be maintained by cross-subsidization."
Training costs questionnaire for operators
ON Monday the passenger transport com
mittee of the Road Transport Industry Training Board decided to send a questionnaire to p.s.v. operators to discover the type and extent of training practices in the industry, and their approximate cost.
Questionnaires will probably be going out within a week or so.
The suggestion that more information should be obtained came from the training policy committee, which met last week. The goods transport and manufacturing motor trade committees have yet to meet to discuss the proposal.
Urban council to subsidize bus service
cEATON Urban Council (Devon) has decided to contribute £100 a year for two years as a subsidy towards the loss incurred by the Southern National Bus Co. on the service between Sidmouth, Seaton and Charmouth via Branscombe, on condition that other local authorities concerned make similar contributions.
The company claims it is losing between £2,000 and £3,000 on the service and wants to discontinue it. If the service stops, however, Branscombe will be without public transport.
The company has said it is willing to continue the service if road improvements are carried out and if their loss is underwritten by up to £500 a year.
Five local authorities--Sidmouth and Seaton Urban councils, Honiton and Axminster rural councils, and Devon County Council—have objected to the company's application to the Traffic Commissioners to amend its licence.
Honiton has agreed to contribute up to £125 a year for two years, but Sidmouth is against a subsidy.
Bus service ends
THE bus service which has run for about 40 years between Great Malvern and Uptonupon-Severn via Welland operated for the last time on January 18.
Operator John Morgan (Private Hire) Ltd. extended the service to Ripple and Nauntonvillages which had never previously had buses— to fiII in the lay-over time at Upton. But receipts from the extension were not enough to balance the continuous fall in traffic on the original route.
L. J. Aston, a private hire and contract operator of Kempsey, has now applied to run a service on Fridays to connect the villages with Upton, but the Malvern—Hanley Swan part of Morgan's route will not be covered by this.