LETTERS
Page 45
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to the editor
Small voice in support
SO MUCH OPPOSITION has there been to the proposals in the Transport Bill—and informed opposition at that, as is clear from the comments published in your pages—that I hesitate, as a mere student of transport, to raise my small voice in support of at least one aspect of the proposals. I refer to the creation of Passenger Transport Authorities.
Set any student of transport the task of planning a rational transport system for a hypothetical area, and I find it difficult to believe he would come up with an idea with any similarity to the present system. Scores of small operators compete for the same peak-hour traffic in the congested centre of a conurbation, each with their own routes, bus stops, and varied standards of operating equipment and staff. Not only that but the present system needs an army of Civil Servants to administer and control it, and has those marvellous sittings of the Traffic Commissioners where operator A gives a day out to scores of old age pensioners in order to oppose operator B's application for an additional picking up point, or something.
Surely one overall body to secure "the provision of a properly integrated and efficient system of public passenger transport to meet local needs" cannot be wrong, either administratively or socially? Or must all our reasoning be clouded by the desire for self-preservation?
Is this, in fact, an instinct which should be allowed to run riot at this time? One would think that the creation of an over-riding authority would ensure improvements in conditions of work for those in the industry.
Have those presently in the seats of power in the industry forgotten what it is like to stand, miserable, cold, sometimes wet, and hopeful, always hopeful, at a bus stop waiting for a vehicle to tum up?
Do we believe that the bus-only city centre streets and bus-only lanes can be maintained while there is a free-for-all among operators?
Control, in this tiny, packed island of ours is unfortunately necessary if we are to enjoy some sort of harmony.
Nero's actions while Rome burned could well be considerably easier to emulate than to get in there and put the fire out.
I can see the protests now. But then, though a student, I am old enough to remember how Mr. Ernest Marples endured a violent "Marples must go" campaign during his period in office as Minister of Transport, only to become widely accepted as a wise moderate. I await the day when Mrs. Castle enjoys the same appreciation. J. HALLOWES, South Ruislip, Middlesex.