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Free bus travel anomalies
Page 25
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• The introduction of a system of free bus passenger transport travel throughout the area covered by SELNEC would mean a rate precept of at least 30p in the pound, says Aid G. Mann, chairman of the PTA in a leading article in its monthly journal SELNEC Express. Referring to the storm among local councils which followed the Authority's decision to precept for 3.4p in the pound he wonders what would have happened if this had been 30p and claims that what is required is a Government policy on free transport as well as on private car and commercial vehicle traffic on the roads of the country.
Says Aid Mann: "There are too many anomalies at present, such as grants paid to BR and the NBC but which the PTE does not receive. In the present precept I believe the ratepayer is paying, as it should be, a part of the social service. It is unfair for the passenger to bear the burden of concessionary fares, whether for the old or young. It is all very well for Mr H. Cutler, chairman of the Greater London Council committee dealing with transport, to say he could not accept a passenger authority which precepted on the council. It would be interesting to know the total of taxpayers' money that has gone to London Transport."
Aid Mann points out that there were 369,000 cars in the SELNEC area in 1966 and that it is estimated these will rise to 945,000 by 1984, giving a density of 798 cars per mile of major road. The cost to achieve this is estimated at £211m. In contrast, he says, a mere £41m is allowed to public transport "to go on its weary way" with bus priority lanes and other such measures. "I am not going to knock bus only lanes: they serve a useful purpose, but they will not solve our overall problem. Because a bus travels down a given length of roadway it will not tempt a car driver away from his car. The Rome experiment proved that free transport on its own will not solve congestion and when I say I believe in the principle of free transport I think we should require some form of boarding charge. This would eliminate one stop rides at peak periods which have bedeviled the Rome and the Munich experiments."
Concluding, Ald Maim says he fully endorses SELNEC's view that public transport is a community need and should be financed by the community as a whole.