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A re-statement of faith in PTAs
Page 33
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• Government commitment to the principle of Passenger Transport Authorities was reiterated by the Minister of State, Ministry of Transport, Mr. Stephen Swingler. when he spoke as principal guest at the MPTA conference dinner at Brighton last week. The Government believed, he said, that the Transport Bill's plans for PTAs, the NBC and the Scottish Bus Group would achieve a progressive extension of public transport.
Mr. Swingler said the re-structuring of public transport was essential, adding: "I am convinced that if we had tried to deal with our public transport problems within the present organizational framework it simply would not have worked.
Those who said the Government was simply borrowing ideas from America had not done their homework, he said. If the American pattern of Massachusetts) had simply been repeated, there would have been a Ministerially appointed body between the locally appointed Authority and its management, the Executive. But in the PTAs plan the executive would be directly responsible to the Authority, on which local aldermen and councillors would have six out of seven of the appointments.
Mr. Swingler brushed aside criticisms that PTAs were just a means of charging rail losses, and that the figures for losses were being hidden. He said that now the PTA areas had taken shape, the railways were "doing their sums-, and everyone would be told as soon as possible what the figures were. In any case it would be up to the local PTA to decide on behalf of the community which local rail services were worth preserving; there would also be substantial grants from central Government.