Trucks could join buses
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• The Freight Transport Association is calling for trucks to be allowed to use bus lanes and it is pressing for more such lanes to be made available.
This is the first time the FTA has thrown its weight behind the public transport lobby — the move comes in the wake of the FTA's report, The Transport Dilemma, which highlights the problems of congestion.
The FTA is currently holding talks with two "very large" bus operators; it is trying to win their support for the necessary legal changes which would be needed to adopt its proposals, says FTA director Richard Turner.
"They have not rejected the idea in principle, but they are cautious about which bus lanes would be included in any scheme," he says. "However, they accept that some bus lanes are under-used."
The FTA is calling for the Government to change the habit of a decade and invest largescale capital investment into fast, clean bus services and urban rail systems.
It wants to see the appointment of a national organiser of roads, charged with maximising the use of the network, setting targets and measuring productivity. "Roads are the conveyor belts of society and we are saying they should be run on industrial principles. The appointment would be technical, rather than political," says Turner.
In its report the FTA calls for a national effort to make the most of Britain's transport resources and avoid industry being strangled by congestion. More roads are needed but they are
not the only answer, especially in towns and cities, it says.
The report was published the day after Transport Secretary Malcolm Rifkind's much-publicised speech urging a revival in rail transport. "What Rifldnd said was fine, as far as it went. But if we doubled the volume of rail freight the reduction in congestion would be taken up by the growth in car traffic in just two months," says Turner.
The FTA report calls for: CI An extension of the crawlerlane concept; 0 A national police force, or improved co-operation among county forces, to improve enforcement; 0 The preparation of an environmental good practice guide for transport operators.