" Drastic " Railway. Plan Soon.: "Keep Boards off the Roads"
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By Our Parliamentary Correspondent
PiA PLAN, described by the Minister of Transport as "drastic and exhaustive," for the re-equipment and modernization of the railways, will be presented before the end of the year. Mr. Boyd-Carpenter, the Minister, told the House of Commons this on Monday during a debate on the Government's schemes for railway reorganization.
The plan would be based on a reassessment of the future role of the railways in this country. A great deal of careful technical preparatory work had been necessary, but the plan was before the British Transport Commission now.
Its purpose was to assist in the move towards greater freedom and flexibility in the railways, which the Minister believed to be essential to success in today's tierce competitive conditions.
Mr. Boyd-Carpenter thought that appointments to membership of the proposed new area boards of the railways should be made by the i Commission, and not by
himself. It was not the intention of the B.T.C. that "guinea pigs" would be appointed to any of the six boards, affirmed MI. H. Molson, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport.
B.T.C. to Decide Policy The only way the Commission will be able to obtain the services of the Sort of responsible public men will be by giving them very full scope for important and responsible work," Mr. Molson explained. Future policy applyink AO the railway system as a whole would be decided by the. B.T.C,, but there would be a "two-way movement of ideas" between the Commission and the boards.
"The Government," Mr. Molson declared, "want to make a success of the nationalized railways. We believe this scheme is well directed towards reconciling and combining the advantages of a centralized control of railway policy, with devolution of administration and management of the areas. We believe this will ensure closer contact between management and those who work on the railways, and will promote a more flexible service so that the needs of the nation can he more fully and efficiently met."
Mr. J. S. Maclay, former Minister of Transport, hoped the area boards would never be asked to take charge of nationalized passenger transport and road haulage without consultation with all concerned, including the House of Commons.
Mr. Ernest Davies stated that railway unification was threatened. "You cannot introduce an extraneous body of controllers in the form of area boards and impose them between the centre and the regions without confusing the tine of authority and weakening unification," he said. Regional managers were bound to have dual responsibility to the area boards and the Commission.
REGISTRATIONS DOWN
REGISTRATIONS of new vehicles in N. August, excluding cars and motorcycles, showed a drop of 4,159 as compared with the previous month's figure. "Other goods was the class mainly responsible, with 5,855 as against 9,483. Further details are given in the table below.