Liberal Transport Policy A FTER the Liberal Conference so brutally pointed
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out that Party H.Q. had misfired on some aspects of transport policy last summer, the thinkers of the Party have been reappraising those hastily constructed doctrines in a slow attempt to bring the subject to the boil once again.
The latest challenge comes from a woman, Mrs. H. M. Derrick who, in the "Liberal News ", states that it is a fallacy to suppose that road transport pays its way, while rail transport does not.
Against the £650 rn, a year paid in road taxes, the nation spends incalculable sums on roads, policemen, traffic wardens, hospital staff, architects and planners, parking arrangements, demolition, etc., she argues. And this does not include the value of 7,000 lives lost each year.
The article calls for fundamental rethinking as to what is the best form of public transport, and, incidentally, recommends more standee buses, p.s.v.s. with trailers and an end to restrictive laws which forbid buses to operate over each other's territory.
Some of these ideas echo the thoughts of Liberal leaders at Westminster, who are deliberately stimulating opinions along certain lines in a bid to bring speedy unanimity to the Party.