Will BOstol Come Back ?

4th May 1962, Page 61

4th May 1962

Page 61

Page 61, 4th May 1962 — Will BOstol Come Back ?

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Keywords : Buses, Double-decker Buses, London Passenger Transport Board, Aec Regent Iii Rt, Marples

WILL anyone, 1 wonder, take up the offer Mr. Marples made during Report Stage of the Transport Bill to sell Bristol Commercial Vehicles, Eastern Coach Works and Star Bodies back to private enterprise after their 14-year sojourn under the State's guiding hand?

All he wanted, said the Minister, was £4m. above an independent valuation, and suitable agreements about staff and other related matters. How about Jaguar's Sir William Lyons (buyer of Daimler and Guy), Sir Henry Spurrier (the Leyland chief) or Sir William Black (who heads A.E.C.)? A colleague asked spokesmen of the three groups whether their chiefs would be interested in Mr. Marples' little "For SaleThdvertisernent. Only one replied, A.E.C., who said: "No comment."

Parallel Case

STRANGELY, in A.E.C., there is a possible parallel. Before the old London Passenger Transport Board was set up in 1933 A.E.C. was wholly owned by the Underground Electric Railways Co. This undertaking was liquidated on incorporation into the L.P.T.B. and A.E.C. shares were distributed among the old Underground company shareholders. A.E.C. thus became a separate entity although it retained its very strong day-to-day association with the London public transport system, The parallel is not, I know, exact; but it does serve to prove precedent for the possible sale of Bristol, as this present situation has, in essence, cropped up before.

Bristol, of course, have for many years supplied virtually 100 per cent, of the buses for the Tilling companies and, before nationalization, made quite an export impact, notably in South Africa. Because they are State-owned, they are far from stationary; in fact, they should very soon be announcing a new underfloor-engined single-deck bus design with a rear-mounted power unit.

In The News

1\ Y hat is hereby doffed to the R.H.A. Northern area chair IVI N. T. O'Reilly, and secretary,. Dennis Le Conte, On the occasion of last Friday's annual dinner of the area, they arranged for special copies of The Journal, the Newcastle morning paper, to be presented to guests before they left. These complimentary R.H.A. copies (the real edition looked rather different) carried across most of the front page picture& and a report of the function. It was a nice touch in an enjoyable function.

Will BOstol Come Back ?

Page 61

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