Another expert plan for London
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OR old London Transport! One more expert has told them how 'to operate efficiently (at fares of id. a mile) if, that is, hie Greater London Council do not first take LTB over. The latest idea comes from a 22-year-old Cambridge University researcher into architectural matters, whose idea has been enthusiastically taken up by the Tory opposition party of GLC (see page 25). Briefly, it is proposed to scrap all bus services in central London and limit transport to a £53m. monorail covering all existing bus routes, the fares on which would be reduced to a profitable id. per mile, he says.
It would be unfair to speculate on the knowledge of bus operation or London's public transport requirements that backs this plan. But since the plan also envisages banning private cars unless they have offstreet parking space, one has visions of a central area in which those twin delights of London—taxis and pedestrians—have unbounded freedom to dash where they will, when they will. A mixture, perhaps, of Saturday morning in the local High Street and the Dodgem ride at a fairground. Of course, there is the possibility that with so much road space available everybody will be able to move so fast on foot (or in a taxi) that they won't need the monorail, a replacement for which is no doubt embryo in some new-born babe's mind.
Night containers
ONE OF the greatest stumbling blocks to the achievement of night-time deliveries by goods vehicles has been the difficulty of finding (and paying for) staff at the customers' premises to accept delivery. Now that the use of containers is surging upwards, might this modern revival of an old idea not remove the stumbling block? After all, what could be easier than for a vehicle to deposit at night a locked container on a company's loading bay (access being provided by the ubiquitous night watchman) and then picking up a ready-loaded one? This is something which would give greater utilization of vehicles and also help to ease congestion problems during the day.