Cinculated 17/3 (10.30am)
✓
Page 96
92
HIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT)
SECRET
C.P.(51) 85
17TH MARCH, 1951
CABINET
COPY NO. 31
BRITISH TRANSPORT COMMISSION - FINANCIAL POSITION
Memorandum by the Minister of Transport
As a result of the Cabinet discussion on 15th March about the receipts and expenditure of the British Transport Commission I was invited (C.M.(51) 20th Conclusions, Minute 3), in consultation with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to bring before the Cabinet at their next meeting revised proposals regarding the charges schemes which the British Transport Commission should put before the Transport Tribunal for main-line railway fares and London fares.
I have consulted with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and with the Chairman of the British Transport Commission and have been unable to come to firm conclusions on which revised proposals could be based. Further discussions may, however, perhaps lead to some modification of the Commission's present proposals so as to bear less hardly on the London area, while at the same time enabling the Commission to comply with their statutory obligations.
In accordance with the authority given to me by the Cabinet on 12th March (C.M.(51) 19th Conclusions, Minute 4) I have also had a preliminary discussion with the permanent members of the Transport Tribunal in regard to an overall increase of 10 per cent in railway, dock, and canal freight charges. I think that it is probable that the Tribunal will be prepared to give me their advice on this proposed increase without requiring a public hearing. If this is so, the increase could be brought into force at an early date and so ease the immediate financial position of the Commission. This should enable me to make a statement in the House of Commons before the Easter Recess, and I seek my colleagues' approval to this course and to the attached draft of the statement I should propose to make.
Ministry of Transport, W.1,
ÞUTE MARCH 1951.
A.B.
Page 96