CANNIBALISM is not a thing of the past. It happens regularly to buses taken off the roads in London. While awaiting replacement parts they are cannibalised for spares to keep the rest of the service running. A few months ago a third of London's buses were off the roads awaiting parts.
As for new bus production, British Leyland is nearly three years behind with orders. Meanwhile in December 1975 the "Think Tank' report estimated that there was 45 per cent spare capacity in the car industry. Yet for the foreseeable future at least 30 percent of the population will be entirely dependent on public transport.
By common consent, we still lack a coherent national transport policy', writes Anthony Crosland in his foreword to the Government's consultation document on transport policy published last week. Too true. The trouble is that his document provides no answers.
It is simply a sophisticated veneer for the current chaos and further cuts. Overshadowing everything is the fact that 'the Government have now decided to limit the growth of public expenditure in the interests of higher exports and investment generally', requiring 'a painful re-appraisal of the priority to be accorded to transport'.
In other words, rail services will be cut to the bone, concentrating on bulk haulage and inter-citv services; there will be no attempt to shift road freight to the railways; rail commuters will be penalised through higher fares; individual car ownership will continue to climb while congestion increases as road building is cut back. retooling sections of the car industry to produce more socially useful and environmentally beneficial forms of transport, the onslaught on car. and rail workers' jobs will continue.
Omissions The report's omissions are as interesting as its contents. Claiming that road traffic would fall by only two per cent and goods traffic by eight percent if rail freight went up by half, it conveniently forgets to mention that such a move would reduce the number of long-distance. freight lorries by 20 per cent. Nor does it mention that the Government will be spending £100 million this year on double glazing for homes directly affected by motorway and road development.
Most revealing is the reason given for cutting out rail subsidies. Decades of continually escalating fares - they've nearly doubled in the in a situation where the richest Instead of 20 per cent of households account for 50 per cent of total household expenditure on rail trave But in stead of reducing fares to encourage more people to use trains, the Government is preparing to with*British Rail management were very savings in the 1960s....' 196.
1964 1965 1966 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 19/4 1976 - Transport Policy - A Consultation Document, Volume 1, p53 last two years alone - have resulted ressive! successful, in co-operation with the unions, in achieving significant manpower Railway Emplovees Howls 476,545 439,551 339,005 365,043 550,140 S0.U9/ 753395 250,777 242,490 234,972 228,590 234,218 230, 972 transport system.
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The Government's new consultation document on transport policy means more cuts, less jobs and poorer services. JAMES HURST argues that the choice facing us is capitalist chaos or a workers' plan for transport and the motor industry.