HC Deb 02 November 1966 vol 735 cc117-8W
Mr. Arthur Lewis

asked the Minister of Transport whether she will make a statement on her recent visit to the United States of America; for what purpose the visit was made; who accompanied her; what were the costs; what other overseas visits have been made by Ministers in her Department during the past two years; and for what purposes and at what costs these visits were made.

Mr. Wall

asked the Minister of Transport if she will make a statement on her visit to the United States of America, including details of the lessons learned that may be applicable to this country.

Mrs. Castle

The purpose of my visit to the United States was to enable me to study developments in transport policy and transport technology—in particular, the latest techniques in the handling of freight traffic in containers; developments in the provision of financing of public transport; highways and traffic policy; and transport research programmes in the United States. In pursuit of this I met the Secretary of the Housing and Urban

Date Minister concerned Place Purposes Total Cost
£
2.12.64 Rt. Hon. T. Fraser (accompanied by three officials) Paris E.C.M.T. Meeting of Ministers 170
27.2.65 Rt. Hon. T. Fraser (accompanied by two officials) Rome E.C.M.T. Meeting of Ministers 300
26.6.65 Rt. Hon. T. Fraser (accompanied by three officials) Lisbon E.C.M.T. Meeting of Ministers 330
1.8.65 Mr. Stephen Swingler (Parliamentary Secretary) (accompanied by three officials) Chateau-neufsur-Loire Inspection of French monorail system 140
30.8.65 Rt. Hon. T. Fraser (accompanied by Private Secretary) Munich E.C.M.T. Meeting of Ministers 120
7.11.65 Rt. Hon. T. Fraser (accompanied by two officials) Paris E.C.M.T. Restricted Grade 4 Meeting of Ministers 100
30.1.65 Mr. Stephen Swingler (Parliamentary Secretary) (accompanied by four officials) Paris E.C.M.T. Meeting 230
25.5.66 Rt. Hon. Barbara Castle (accompanied by three officials) Lucerne E.C.M.T. Meeting 210
24.10.66 Mr. Stephen Swingler (Parliamentary Secretary) (accompanied by Private Secretary) Strasbourg 150th Anniversary of the Central Rhine Commission (representing Prime Minister, Minister of Transport and Foreign Secretary) 100
27.10.66 Rt. Hon. Barbara Castle (accompanied by four officials) Paris Meeting with French Minister of Equipment (Monsieur E. Pisani) in connection with the provision of the Channel Tunnel 120

Development Department, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation, and officials of their Departments; the Administrator of the Californian State Transportation Agency, the Californian State Highway Engineer and the chief engineer of District VII of the Californian Highways Administration; the Traffic Commissioner of New York City; many senior political and professional people responsible for transport in Boston and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Commissioners and senior officers in both the Port of New York Authority and the New York City Transit Authority; the President and senior officers of the Association of American Railroads, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company Incorporated, and Sealand Services Inc.; and senior officers of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and of the Matson Shipping Corporation. From all these discussions I learned a great deal of value, of which I shall take account in the development of transport policy for this country.

I was accompanied to the United States by my Chief Scientific Adviser and my Principal Private Secretary. The costs incurred were £1,332.

Other overseas visits have been made during the past two years by me, my predecessor and our Parliamentary Secretaries as follows:—