The Thin End of the Wedge
Page 27
Page 28
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A Committee s recorn LTHOUGH the Inglis ' Inglis Report Creates a Dangerous mendations for the Precedent for the Subjugation of organization of road passenger Road to Rail Transport transport in the Glasgow area envisage the operation of services by three separate entities, its proposals lend themselves to the formation of a board similar to the London Transport Executive. Indeed, it would probablY not have caused surprise in the industry if the committee had openly suggested unified ownership.
The committee's report, summarized in "The Commercial Motor" last week, aims at making the railways the main agency of passenger transport for journeys of more than five miles. Except within the city boundaries, where Glasgow Corporation's serviees are regarded as essential to economic life, buses would be treated principally as feeders to the railways.
To advance that object, certain stations are suggested as interchange points, at which passengers would transfer from road to rail on inward journeys and from rail to road on the return. A service based on this formula has been in operation for nine months on the Pollok housing estate. Buses pick up passengers on the estate and connect with the railway at Corkerhill. Combined railway and bus weekly tickets, available for unlimited travel, are issued, at a charge of 4s. 6d., of which Is. goes to Glasgow Corporation and 3s. 6d. to British Railways.
Unfortunate Coincidence Unfortunately, publication of the Inglis Committee's report coincided with the recommendation of the general manager of Glasgow Transport Department that the service from Pollok to Corkerhill should be discontinued because it was showing a heavy loss to the municipality. During a week in August, only 36 people bought combined road-rail weekly tickets. In the eight weeks ended October 27, revenue per bus-mile ranged from 4.37d. to 5.14{1., compared with working costs of 2s. 2d. per mile. The fact is that the residents of Pollok, like millions of others, prefer to travel to town directly by bus.
Interavailability of tickets between road and rail is highly desirable, and is offered in many parts of the country. It does not imply that fares on the road and rail portions of a journey should be similar, but enables the public to be given the advantages of both services at Minimum cost and inconvenience. Danger, however, lies in levelling fares between the two agencies. There is always the risk, particularly under a scheme of nationalization, that road fares may be raised to railway level to subsidize the less popular form of travel. Anomalies in fares exist in Glasgow, but any attempt to enforce the railway standard scale on municipal and company-owned bus services would be against the public interest.
Salute To Road 'Transport Although the report emphasizes the importance of making the fullest use of existing railway assets, it does not diminish the value of the amenities brought to the public by the initiative of road passenger transport operators. "Road operators are capable and enterprising, and have been successful in attracting a large clientele and developing a very lucrative business," it says. "They have studied the needs of the public, have satisfied them and have reaped their reward."
Nevertheless, it -makes proposals which would deprive road operators of part of the fruits of their labours and force the public to conform with a pattern of transport which, in the case of Pollok, it has shown it does not like.
Comparisons between the speed of road and rail travel are often striking on paper, but do not bear investigation in practice on a combined journey by road and rail. The report quotes the average speed of electric railways as 25-27 m.p.h. and of buses of the Scottish Omnibuses group as 17 m.p.h. If a 15-mile journey were made by road at an average of 17 imp.h., it would take 53 minutes. If 10 miles of that trip were made by electric train and five miles by bus, allowing 10 minutes for the change, the overall time would be 52 minutes. To save a minute—and a questionable saving at that—the passenger would be put to the inconvenience of changing at a draughty 'station.
As an attempt to develop existing resources, the Inglis report is admirable. Like all'plans, however, it leaves human considerations out of A25 account, and places economics above convenience. It threatens to saddle Glasgow bus passengers with a financial burden similar to that which Londoners bear on account of the underground railways.
Long-term planning demands a new approach to the provision of adequate roads, rather than the direction of traffic to an out-dated agency. The problems tackled in the Inglis report are local in their context, but they are experienced in some degree in every major city in the kingdom. Action on the lines proposed would set a dangerous precedent for the subjugation of road to rail transport, and interfere with the liberty of the individual to travel how he wishes.