BIRD'S EYE VIEW
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BY THE HAWK
• North Western, the bus company, is in a bit of a quandary. Before printing its new timetables it wants to know whether passengers have a strong preference for the 12-hour or 24-heures clock.
Although the continental system has been used in Britain by British Rail, airlines and many bus companies for some years, some people say they find it confusing, cannot get used to it and just do not like it.
The company would very much like to get some idea of what the people of Merseyside and West Lancashire feel about the timetables. After all, there is no point in running buses if passengers can't tell when they run.
North Western wants to hear from readers. Contact David Abraham, North Western's commercial
manager, on 051 922 8601. 1 assume he's at his desk from 9 till 5.
IN Trucker Colin Dawkins from London got the fright of his life recently when a mysterious black cat "larger than an Alsatian dog" climbed all over his parked vehicle near Durham.
Quite sensibly. Dawkins stayed inside his truck and broadcast a plea for help on his CB. One "good buddy" rather like these code word.; used in that fraternity) in West Cornforth got the message and alerted the police.
By the time they had reached the unfortunate Dawkins the monster had gone hut a search was mounted near the A167 outside Hett village where the incident took place last week. There was no trace of the Hett Horror.
• Bus drivers and conductors are distributing colourful leaflets to passengers to publicise the Transport and General Workers Union's campaign to clean up the nation's cities.
The campaign flies under the slogan 'Cities are for People' and aims to gather support for less congestion on the roads and better public transport.
This is the odd bit — the union argues that banning heavy lorries will result in less traffic and cleaner air and that communities will therefore benefit.
What in heaven's name could possibly be further from the union's interests? Trucks are very rarely on the roads without a load. How many private 5-seater cars have you seen carrying five people? The vast majority of cars that I've seen during rush hour have been carrying the driver and no-one else.
Perhaps the T&G should aim its campaign at motorists who, with minimal effort, could greatly reduce the number of cars on the roads by sharing their vehicles with neighbouring commuters.
• It conies to something when the UK's sole remaining independent commercial vehicle manufacturer makes much of the fact, then hands out promotional matches made in Japan. Bryant and May is not too upset. It considered ERI: vehicles before deciding to purchase its latest P92 Scania. 44 pallet. drawbar combinations which are used to transport about 50 million boxes of matches a year.
• Sealink British Ferries has introduced a new large freight-only ferry, the Sear reight Freeway, onto its Dover/Dunkirk route. The launch was geared around the 'strength' of the service and the carrying capacity of 'heavy' freight vehicles, so the event was marked by Geoff Capes, current holder of the "World's Strongest Man" title, attempting to break his world record for pulling a 12.5-ton truck the whole length of the 25 metre quayside. He did it, too — reducing his time from 54.3 to 42.3 seconds on his second attempt, and it's going into the Guinness Book of Records.
• More news from the land of unlicenced moose. Three weeks ago I gave you an interesting statistic involving road accidents in Sweden, 25'4 of which are caused by moose.
Well, one of these majestic but less than bright beasts rampaged down the main street of the central Swedish town of Orebro recently, inflicting much damage to cars before charging through the window of a social insurance office.
What the moose wanted from that office 1 can guess. Moose have rights, too, and he probably wanted to put in a claim for compensation for loss of relatives on the roads. Officials were having none of this and he was later shot dead.