Prove reliability first
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"'T" HE GOVERNMENT intends to be satisfied that 'the new Freightliner service has proved itself in practice before quantity licensing is introduced." The events of this week can have done little to gladden the heart of Mrs. Barbara Castle, but she must have breathed a sigh of relief as she re-read the above passage in the White Paper on the transport of Freight.
When will the Freightliner service prove itself? How long will the period of proof be? The railways have shown themselves over the past few years too irresponsible to be handed all long-distance haulage. The Minister just must not hand it over—for that reason alone. Railway union strikes and workings-to-rule hit industry hard today; consider how much more damage their disputes will cause if BR has this haulage monopoly.
Once again road hauliers have come to the rescue when the nation is faced with a transport crisis. But what of the day when there are no vehicles over 16-tons-gross to come to the rescue?
The Minister need not scrap her ideal—let her merely put it to the test. Let the BRB prove over the next three years that it is reliable. Three strike-free years would do much to re-assure industry that rail has modernized its thinking as well as its equipment.
Now, another monopoly
WHAT HAPPENS if Mrs. Castle's latest Monopolistic giant is affected by an industrial dispute?
While some of the sting of her long-awaited White Paper on Public Transport and Traffic has been removed by the masterly stroke of acquiring the bus interests of the British Electric Traction Co., the creation of the National Bus Company and the Scottish Transport Group bring a large slice of passenger road transport under public control. No less than 93 per cent of passengers carried on stage services will soon be travelling on publicly owned vehicles.
The prospect of PTAs covering the whole country has diminished, at least for the time being. Municipal operators in conurbations will be taken over, and this despite previous opposition even from many Labourcontrolled councils.
With the powers to be vested in the PTAs and the NBC—how long will the independents last?