London Talks Disintegrate
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT 1 ONDON TRANSPORT have been La forced to abandon their schemes— for the time being, at any rate—for increasing efficiency and productivity in their bus fleet. After marathon talks with the unions, going back over the past twelve months, the L.T.E. finally threw in the towel last week.
They abandoned their already watereddown plans for paying crews of the larger Routemaster buses more in return for a 9 per cent cut in the number of buses. Instead they agreed to keep the same number of buses on the road by replacing each 56-seater RT bus with a 64-seater Routemaster; but paying nothing extra to the Routemaster crews.
For some 6,000 London busmen, the decision means that they have lost the chance of an immediate pay rise of 9s. 2d. a week. For the travelling public
it will mean the same frequency of service, but with more seats available, particularly during the rush hour. And for London Transport it will mean the loss of savings which, they estimate, would have run at the rate of £1,000,000 a year by the time the Routemaster conversion scheme was completed. Of this total, £550,000 would have been kept by the L.T.E., the other £450,000 would have gone to the busmen. The final break-down came in another all-day session, when the busmen's negotiating committee of the T.G.W.U. asked that the allowance, due to be paid to Routemaster crews only, should be shared equally by all drivers and conductors throughout the fleet. In a last conciliatory effort, the L.T.E. agreed to explore the possibility of spreading the portion of the payment relating to ease
ment of conditions over all central bus staff and driver-conductors of one-man operated buses in the country areas. But the union team rejected this proposal also on the grounds that the distribution proposed was inadequate and did not cover all bus staffs without exception. The L.T.E. pointed out that they could not possibly apply the scheme to garage maintenance men who had their own bonus scheme, nor to country and Green Line drivers and conductors, since they had no proposals for larger buses in the country areas.
A sting came in the tail of the final statement, for the L.T.E. added: "The schedules will subsequently, as always, be varied upwards and downwards according to the requirements of the passenger traffic on the routes concerned."
It is here that further potential trouble lies. For the busmen are likely to resist strongly any proposals to cut down the number of Routemasters used on a route on the grounds that the number of passengers does not warrant so many buses. They will see any such move as a way of achieving what London Transport originally set out to do—only this time without paying the crews anything extra. But that lies in the future.
A more immediate consequence is likely to be the launching of a new pay claim, although the last was only granted in April. It is likely to be in two parts —a general, all-round pay rise and an extra allowance for every "five years' service with London Transport.
Hover Trailer?
THE possibilities of a hover trailer for towing heavy loads on the roads was among the potential developments of the hovercraft principle mentioned by Mr. Geoffrey Harding, general manager, Wallasey Corporation Transport Department, at Wallasey last week.
He said the principle of hovering—the creation of a completely frictionless device—had a definite future but it was too early to say in which direction would be its major application.
In addition to marine purposes, the development of hover trains, hover hospitals to give mobility in underdeveloped countries and hover road trailers were among possibilities.
Better Roads THE future prosperity of Blackpool is threatened by out-of-date roads; it must be alive to this danger, insisting on a system that gives speedy and easy access to the resort, said Mr. George Brook, general manager of Ribble Motor Services Ltd., on Friday.
Coach Firm Wound-up AN order for the compulsory windingup of Cornwallis Coaches Ltd., of Stroud Green, London, N., was made by Mr. Justice Plowman in the High Court on Monday on the petition of The British Wagon Company Ltd., of Moorgate, Rotherham, Yorks, judgment creditors for £436