1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160 
Words without actions, says Peter Walker
Page 28
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WITHE4 an hour of the White Paper being " published Mr. Peter Walker, shadow Transport Minister, said at Westminster: "Never has there been a White Paper with so many words and so few actions. Committees, Inquiries, talks and future studies are Mrs. Castle's substitute for a transport policy."
In a long statement, Mr. Walker said that the White Paper contained 138 paragraphs. 109 were devoted to platitudes, 21 referred to future committees, talks, etc.. and only eight paragraphs had any suggestions about solutions, and five of these were vague.
Mr. Walker said the only decision Mrs. Castle had made about the National Freight Authority was on its name. There was no indication of how much it would cost to relieve the railways of uneconomic social services, or the proportions to be paid between taxpayer and ratepayer.
The only miserable result of Labour Party thinking after 13 years in opposition and 21 months of Government was three proposals —to close a further 1,730 miles of railway, to co-ordinate BRS parcels with railways freight sundries and a bold decision for the Waterways Board to enter into development agreements.
But Mrs. Castle had failed to make any decision on control of traffic congestion, road pricing, vehicle licensing, the under-usage of liner trains due to restrictive practices, the over-manning of buses and trains, unreasonably low speed schedules for road haulage and the future of the Transport Holding Company, among other things.
Mr. Walker said the road haulage industry was confronted with a period of desperate uncertainty. Besides the burden of the increased fuel tax, the abolition of investment allowances and the selective employment tax there was now uncertainty about the future of their licensing system and doubt about whether the National Freight Authority would be so subsidized as to undercut unfairly the free enterprise haulier.
Faced with having to commit her thoughts to paper, Mrs. Castle had been exposed as a naked propagandist devoid of policies.
"One can well understand the Government refusing to debate the White Paper before the recess, for there is nothing to debate apart from the inadequacy, indecisiveness and incompetence of our road-cutting, road taxing, non-motoring Minister."
Open-terminal liner service?
m RS. CASTLE expects the Freightliner
rail services between London and Garston in Lancashire to go ahead on the basis of open terminals "soon". She said this in the Commons when she was asked about the services this week.