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Plan to boost rural bus services
Page 52
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EXTENDED use of GPO mail vans by fare paying passengers, better use of school buses, welfare car pool schemes . . . these are some of the ideas for improving 'rural public transport now being officially considered.
Mr. Stephen Swingler, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, said last week that these schemes were being looked at by a working party including representatives of local authorities and bus operators.
"We hope, after the next few months, to be able to report measures which we will take in this sphere, combined with the introduction of the powers given to local authorities and the Minister of Transport to make grants enabling rural public transport to be maintained", added Mr. Swingler, winding up a Commons debate.
Outlining the Government's attitude towards rural bus services, he said the local authority association had been asked for its views on proposed legislation by which local authorities and central government would give financial assistance in cases where there was a need which could not be reasonably met otherwise.
Mr. Swingler added that it was hoped to complete the review of London Transport Board's problems by about the middle of next year.
Summing up the Government's attitude towards public transport, Mr. Swingler declared: "We are determined to strike at the roots of this decay. We are determined to rehabilitate public transport and to expand it".