Edinburgh go it alone
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• Edinburgh Corporation is to continue operating its own transport undertaking. A suggested take-over by the Scottish Bus Group was rejected by the city council's transport committee on Monday.
It had been told by the transport manager, Mr. Ronald Cox, that consideration had been given to the undertaking's future in the light of the Transport Bill and the possible establishment of a Passenger Transport Authority for the area and operating arrangements with the proposed Scottish Transport Group.
However, he was strongly of the view that the existing undertaking was a viable unit in itself and efficiently performed an essential public service. Deficits similar to its 1966/67 figure were not uncommon in municipal undertakings at the present time, he said, and the introduction of a standard formula for payments out of rating funds for concessionary fares might restore the balance.
The fleet was in an excellent condition with modernized depots and workshops and low maintenance bills were all features favouring retention of control, and, he said, staff wages and conditions were better than those operative in other undertakings.' He urged the speedy introduction of one-man buses and an investigation into the possibility of greater flexibility of co-ordination with the Scottish Bus Group on routes within the city boundary.
Other money-making proposals put forward were for commercial operation of the municipal car washing facilities; the establishment of a Ministry of Transport vehicle testing station within the corporation's garages and extension of bus hire outside the city.
Efficient services could not be operated in present peak-hour congestion and the committee agreed to ask the town council to consider buses-only lanes in certain streets.
Commenting on the decision, Mr. George Middleton, vice-chairman of the Economic Planning Council and a member of the council's transport committee, said Edin-I burgh's decision was "unwise and non-progressive".