Bus Fares and Nationalisation
SIR,—ln the course of the inquiry into higher fares on buses and trains which is now taking place in London, a financial expert of the British Transport Commission stated that London was only being asked to shoulder the burden before the rest of the country because schemes for the rest of the country have not yet been produced. The logic of this statement is unmistakable. London Transport's buses were taken over by the B.T.C. in 1948. Therefore, London Transport passengers must 'pc made to pay higher fares to reduce the losses on the B.T.C.'s rail- ways. Therefore the B.T.C. must acquire the provincial buses, whether privately or municipally owned at present, in order that their passengers, too, may be made to contribute to toe finances of the railways.
It. is precisely because this was foreseen as the inevitable effect of nationalisation that the proposed " scheme " for co-ordinating bus and rail under the British Transport Commission, which was first mooted in the North-Eastern counties eighteen months ago, has been vigorously apposed by the Omnibus Passengers Protection Association. The asso- ciation now numbers more than 102,000 members, and similar associa- tions have been formed in North-West England, Central England, East Anglia, South Wales and South-West England. The scheme is equally repugnant to the municipalities, which take strong exception to losing control over their transport systems and which resent the threatened confiscation of their valuable undertakings without compensation.
London is only the beginning. Every bus service in every county is marked out for absorption into the nationalised transport system if the Government's project is allowed to go through. But—and this is the point—under the Transport Act, 1947, the public and the local authorities have a right to object to any schemes that are proposed, and if public opinion makes itself articulate the schemes can be defeated.—Yours, &c., R. ERSKINE-HILL, Organising Secretary, Omnibus Passengers Protection Association. 18 Jesmond Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2.
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