We want LT
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LONDON TRANSPORT should receive more funds from the Government, Greater London Council transport committee chairman Dave Wetzel told the House of Commons transport committee last week. But he said there was no need to transfer it to the Department of Transport.
In the course of an hour-long session with the Commons committee, when its Social Democrat chairman, Tom Bradley (Leicester East), became visibly irritated by Mr Wetzel's recourse to political views, Mr Wetzel paid tribute to LT chairman Sir Peter Masefield, but took issue with his idea of taking the organisation out of the GLC's hands.
He said that LT is a national asset which deserves more national funding, but which needs local democratic control, and said that the superimposition of another layer of bureaucracy, as proposed by the LT and BR chairmen, could have a detrimental effect.
Mr Wetzel said he wanted to encourage a mentality in which public transport co-operated to compete with private transport, rather than with itself, and said he would welcome the banishing of long-distance express coaches from Central London to outer Underground stations, as this would make for more efficient use of both modes, and would ease coach congestion around Victoria Coach Station. This echoes similar plans which were floated in the early 1930s.
And Mr Wetzel, who told the committee that the council has turned down the offer of a City loan to meet its debts, pointed out that the GLC had allowed for a further 30 per cent fares increase in January 1983.