lif.P.s Attack on Rural Transport Problems
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A N aggressive tone was adopted by
several M.P.s last week during a short Commons debate on transport in rural areas. Mr. Rupert Speir (Cons., Hexharn) said: "It is not good enough for the Government to go on stalling as they have done in recent years on this vital matter, which so directly affects the happiness and prosperity of the countryside."
Mr. Will Owen (Soc., Morpeth) felt that any suggestion that local bus operators' financial difficulties were to be resolved by the Traffic Commissioners by means of higher fares was to ignore the wider responsibility of running a national transport service.
Mr. Ernest Popplewell (Soc., Newcastle upon Tyne) urged the Government to apply their minds particularly to the question of rural transport to ensure that service was given to isolated hamlets. Mr. Ernest Davies stated that it would be difficult for public services to be maintained unless the Government acted.
Replying to the debate, Mr. G. R. El. Nugent, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, referred to the increasing ownership of private vehicles and said that a great deal had been done to keep transport services running. To a large extent this was a matter for local adjustments.
Traffic Commissioriers were specifically responsible for balancing profitable urban routes with non-paying country facilities, but it was realized that the situation was worsening because of the rapid increase in the numbers of private cars and motorcycles.. The Ministry of Transport had been studying the problem this summer and if fresh methods of dealing with it were found, they would be put into effect.