36
Wednesday, March 28, 1973
ACTION MUST BE TAKEN TO CURB VEHICLE INCREASE
Public Transport Companies Must Improve Service
The Financial Secretary said today that measures must be taken
to curb the increase in vehicles.
Speaking at the resumed Budget Debate in the Legislative Council,
the Hon. C.P. Haddon-Cave said that with nearly 200,000 vehicles now on
the roads, new vehicle registrations continued to rise at almost 15 per
cent a year.
He said that "as the most dramatic increase in recent years has
been in private cars, motor cycles and goods vehicles, these categories
are the ones which most need to be restrained."
However, the Financial Secretary recognised that a condition of
making "a real dent" in this problem was the provision of adequate and
efficient public transport services.
Mr. Haddon-Cave said the franchised companies "are not
generally providing adequate services."
He said that unless the Government received firm and enforceable
undertakings from the existing companies that their services would be
substantially improved, the renewal of their franchises would be seriously
in doubt.
The Financial Secretary referred to a suggestion by the Hon. Szeto
Wai to speed up the construction of multi-storey car parks and automatic
vehicle inspection centres.
He said the proposal for an automatic vehicle inspection centre
was being considered.
/On parking,