Life-and-Death Fight by Public Transport
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DR1VATE cars and public transport
systems of great cities in Britain and America were now engaged in a life-and-death struggle, Sir John Elliot, chairman of London • Transport, told delegates to the American Transit Association Convention in Montreal on Monday.
In Britain, where the number of cars per head of the population was only a quarter of what it was in America, London Transport passenger figures had dropped by 14 per cent., he said. In many American cities, undertakings had lost up to half their traffic.
In Britain, nearly all the passengers lost were "leisure and pleasure" travellers during off-peak periods. These were the times when operators relied on getting extra traffic to balance their budgets.
In many American cities, private-car competition had reached the point where public transport was virtually a rush-hour business only, and this was the way to bankruptcy. There were only three solutions—a " peak-only " service at high rates, a much-reduced peak-hour service to cut costs—neither of which would be tolerated by the public—or subsidies.
On traffic congestion, Sir John said that 50,000 parked cars were throttling the circulation of London, but London Transport were making big efforts to overcome the problem. He added: "1 don't think either car competition or congestion will kill public transport. There is a limit to which people will find it worth while to use their own private cars in cities."