Rural Rides
Page 57
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E. Q.U_AL,ITY for all was one of the slogans of the Socialists. during their lustrum. of nationalization. Control of key industries was supposed to ensure fair distribution of their products and services. Things have not always worked out as planned. Complaints seem to be made with increasing frequency that State monopolies • are treating the public with less equality than they would receive' if independent competition was still -available. ..
A. recent example comes from the East Midland Transport.. !Users Consultative Committee, who in a memorandum to the Central CommIttee deplore the effect . upon rural passenger services of the Transport .Act, 1947, The Committee acknowledge that the Act places an obligation upon the British Transport Commission as a whole to make their services pay. But the result, according to the memorandum, is that the railways and the road companies, acting independently in their own areas, have had no difficulty in justifying the withdrawal of facilities in order to economize. There has been "a gradual and piecemeal curtailment of .services and facilities," and this is " denuding agricultural areas even of the amenities they have enjoyed for many years."
It is not suggested that the B.T.C. alone are responsible, but one is at liberty to speculate whether the , situation would be the same had nationalization not [Liken place.
What is meant by equality of treatment within the context of travel is not easy to define. The isolated farmer cannot expect as many buses past his door as across Piccadilly C4us. He can at least hope that the transport service he has will improve little by little as time goes on. When in fact it deteriorates, he is justified in feeling that civilization itself is ebbing away, leaving him .high and dry. . The feeling is accentuated when in a short time the service is withdrawn completely.
An Impossible Position The East Midland committee maintain that this is actually happening in some cases. When train services are withdrawn, says their memorandum, there is frequently no alternative bus service, or no service at convenient times. At the same time, the road companies arc adjusting their services to reduce unrernunerative mileage. The result is that Many places have no alternative facilities when one is withdrawn, and the consultative committees, "faced with a succession of detailed proposals to withdraw unremuncrative facilities in rural areas, are in an impossible position, and they carry out their thankless task without satisfaction to I hernselves or those who come before them."
The trend runs counter to one point of national policy on which all parties are in broad agreement. The drift of population from the country into the towns presents a serious problem, and nothing should be done to accentuate it.. Cuts, in transport services are hardly calculated to make the countryman contented with his lot, and the effect is most pronounced of all on younger people.
The memorandum, therefore, does not go too far when it recommends a Government inquiry at the highest level into the relationship of passenger transport in rural areas to the economy of the country.. The Committee also wish to have investigated the extent to which •rural passenger transport should be provided 'as a social service; the extension Of the'systern of 'subsidizing rural services by receipts from urban services; and methods of replacing under different arrangements 'at reduced cost the services at present being withdrawn.
Finance iS the crux of the problem. Costs of operation are increasing continually. The applications now under consideration for higher wage,s for municipal and company bus workers will, if successful, almost certainly lead to an attempt to increase fares. The passengers will put up stout resistance, and many of the Licensing Authorities will support them. If sanction is not given, the operators will have no alternative but to reduce or eliminate some of their uneconomic services, mostly journeys on which the rural community are subsidized by the travellers in town.
, Government Hold the Key Few cuts can he made in the costs themselves, except for one important item over which the Government have control. If taxation on transport Operators were reduced, fares could also come down, or at least there would be no need to put them up. In theory, this would allow the provision of more rural services, even when they are run at a loss.
In practice, one or two difficulties might arise. The townsmen would expect to share in the benefits of a tax reduction. They would see in it an attempt to cut the cost of living, and they would be called upon to pay tax in some other direction lo make up the loss to the Exchequer. The B.T.C. might regard the reduction as a • means for wiping out their losses rather than as an incentive to give a better service to the countryman.
A reduction in the tax on transport operators is amply justified on many other counts, but it may not solve the problem of the rural rides. There should be plans to encourage the independent man of enterprise. . The East Midland committee, without showing any great enthusiasm, passed on in their memorandum a number of suggestions they had considered.
One was for the introduction into rural areas Of general-purpose vehicles to carry passengers and goods. This might upset existing arrangements for the carriage of goods, and merely transfer the problem irorri one side of the transport industry to the other. But the idea of experimenting with different kinds of vehicle is sound. Smaller vehicles than usual might prove 'eco.. nomical.
Another suggestion was for the encouragement of greater co-ordination between large and small operators, and for more favourable Consideration of applications by small operators to run services between places that now have no facilities. If this could be done, it would provide the best solution. The report of the Thesiger -Committee paid tribute to operators generally for their ready co-operation with. the Licensing Authorities in running a high proportion of unremunerative services. If the B.T.C. are not continuing this tradition, perhaps other operators are available or Can be found to maintain or strengthen the link with the rural community.