No cut-price midgets!
Page 47
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Minibuses on London Transport's night services would not have the advantages that your columnist (The Hawk, Bird's eye view, CM May 12) implied.
About 88 per cent of the cost of running a night route goes in crews' wages and the only way to save on this substantial sum is to convert the services to one-man operation — which we are doing gradually. Use of minibuses would achieve no further saving in staff costs: in fact, it would lead to an increase, because extra vehicles would be needed to cope with the full loads at present carried on some night journeys.
The fact that night buses are "borrowed" from day routes helps to keep expenses down. It is difficult to see how minibuses would lead to further significant economies — unless your columnist foresees the quarter-size buses being operated by quarter-size staff on quarter-size wages!
KENNETH POPE Press Officer London Transport