Mr. Valentine on 'Challenging Tasks'
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ISSUING a special New Year message A to the 76,000 staff of the new London Transport Board which took over from the L.T.E. on Tuesday, Mr. A. B. B. 'Valentine, chairman of the Board, spoke of "the challenging tasks that lie ahead ".
Remarking on the differences between the responsibilities of the L.T.E. and the new Board, Mr. Valentine said: "The main difference is that the London Transport Board will carry the entire responsibility for the operation, maintenance, financing and development of the undertaking, whereas (since 1948) the London Transport Executive have been subject to the overriding authority of the British Transport Commission in many important respects.
"The new Board will also be required to work to a new financial target, to be settled in advance in agreement with the Minister of Transport on the same broad principles as will apply to other publiclyowned industries.
• "The main thing unchanged will be our obligation to provide a service which is both adequate for the public's needs and at the same time economical and efficient," he stressed, "and in carrying out this obligation the new Railways Board are associated with us in the London area."
Mr. Valentine went on: "Much is already being done to re-equip London Transport to carry out these tasks more effectively. We are in the middle of the biggest programme there has ever been for replacement of our road and rail rolling stock; development and improvement of equipment and methods are going ahead rapidly; and now that the new Victoria line is actually under way, we can look forward to an exciting time of transport improvements in the metropolis."
Take-over BAXTER'S BUS SERVICES LTD., of Airdrie, who operates a range of services in the Coatbridge, Airdrie area of Lanarkshire, has been acquired by the Scottish 'Omnibuses Group.
British Coach Rally
THE British Coach Rally will this year be held at Brighton on April 20-21. A two-day event organized within the now familiar formula—a 100-mile road "section followed by driving tests and a concours—the regulations, classifications and driving tests are all being revised to make the Rally more competitive and to streamline the previously rather involved results system.
Glasgow Train-Bus Link DSPITE a capacity of 75,000, the train-bus link at Castlemilk-St. Enoch has only carried 10,000 passengers each week since its introduction by Glasgow Corporation and British Railways to allow reduction of congestion in the city centre. Although the new service is running well below capacity, the overall value of the experiment on city routes and traffic is to be considered and will be a factor in making a final decision as to the value of such links.