Nationalized Buses by 1959?
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THE Singapore Government have accepted the report of the commission of inquiry which rectmmended the unification of all bus services on the island. It has not yet been decided whether the new undertaking will he iii the form of a company or a public authority. but it is the Government's aim for the changeover to be completed in 1959.
As a first step. the Government will engage an expert adviser who will have as one of his prime duties the investigation of the prospects of forming a statutory company. He will also he required to draft the legislation
In a Sessional Paper presented to the Singapore Legislative Assembly, the Government stated that they believed "it to be in the clearest interest of the public that omnibus services should continue permanently to provide one or the principal means of passenger trans
port. . ."
The system must be universal and embrace all the motor bus and trolleybus services in the island, its operation must ensure its viability through expert management, sound financial policy and constant attention to public requirements, and the adaptation must he wholly within the Government's power.
For such a system to evolve out of the present organization of the bus services would be " practically impossible." the paper went on. " Even if it were in all other respects satisfactory [which it 04 was notj, the division of the held of operations between II separate private companies would lead eventually to such a wide disparity between public requirements and the capacity of the industry to meet them that dependence on omnibuses would decline and the public would be compelled to turn to other means of transport ...."
Whether the form the new body will take will be that of a statutory limited liability company will depend largely on whether the necessary capital is likely to be forthcoming. But if it were, it would be only temporary.
The Government were willing in principle to contemplate such a partnership " as a stage in the establishment of full public ownership of the passenger transport industry, and to guarantee to the statutory company security of its tenure of operating rights, subject to safe guards in the public interest Sir Thomas Strangman, chairman of the Singapore Traction Co., Ltd., the largest bus company on the island, told The Commercial MO. tor on Monday that he did not think his company would be interested in the proposed temporary company. He added that the whole matter of transport in Singapore was in a state of flux.
[The report of the commission. ot which the chairman was Mr. L. C. Hawkins. a member of the London Transport Executive. was summarized in The Commercial Motor on June 1.1