I should like to make some comments about the priorities
of the UTSG list; I write as a researcher who is 200 miles
from the university at which I am registered. My university
provides no library facilities, and because transport is not
in any way a mainstream area there are no opportunities for
discussion. I took early retirement which means that my
pension rarely stretches to attending public meetings, even
if these provided the opportunity for discussion in sufficient
detail.
It has, therefore, always been disappointing that the UTSG list
has never encouraged or allowed discussion. To spend time
discussing whether Blackwells or anyone else should be allowed
to advertise on the list reflects very sadly on the moderator/s
priorities. I should like to question whether such things are
of more value than actually discussing transportation issues?
It seems to me that there is a real gap in the opportunities
for academic discussion of the various issues involved in
transport provision, and I will mention just two which are of
relevance in the West Yorkshire area. The local train operator,
Arriva, has a shortage of drivers because, I have been told by staff,
it pays the least of all the operators in the area. For a temporary period
it has been allowed to replace a number of trains with buses - without
consutation with passengers. This is all public money - it is time
those who pay had control over the things they paid for.
Now that the SRA has agreed that Arriva can increase drivers' salaries
by £3,500, not only does it raise questions of comparability between bus
and train drivers (train drivers driving a single unit 153 along a branch
line will be paid double a bus driver with an equivalent size bus?) but - in
view of the need to pay all drivers the same salary in the proposed Northern
franchise one wonders exactly where the money is coming from. We
should not be too surprised if the Government caps the money and the
result is well paid drivers but less trains for passengers - or perhaps
even no trains at all. Those of us who travel regularly on Arriva Trains
know well the meaning of the words "lame duck"!!!
---
Roy Killey, MLS ALA Cert Ed
(formerly Academic Liaison Librarian, Design and Communication Systems,
Anglia
Polytechnic University; now MPhil/PhD student researching into the psychology
of transport imagery)
28 Howe Lane,
Nafferton,
DRIFFIELD,
East Yorkshire,
YO25 4JU
United Kingdom
+44 (0)1377 254718 (home)
+44 (0)788 0933 085 (mobile)
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