§ Mr. SMITHERSasked the Minister of Transport if he will give a return showing in parallel columns the amounts of stocks, bonds, or other financial commitments of the undertakings to be administered by the proposed London Passenger Transport Board and the amounts of transport stock to be issued against each amount; and will he include in the return the approximate number of passengers to be dealt with daily by the proposed Transport Board, the approximate mileage of transport undertakings to be administered by the Transport Board, the area in square miles under the control of the board, and the population of that area?
§ Mr. PYBUSI am not in a position to furnish the return desired by my hon. Friend, as there are a number of undertakings the consideration for the transfer of which will be fixed by an arbitration tribunal. The amounts of transport stock to be issued to the Underground and Metropolitan Companies are shown in the40W Second Schedule to the London Passenger Transport Bill and the proposed new schedule to that Bill standing on the Order Paper respectively. The amounts of stock to be issued to the London, Middlesex and Hertfordshire County Councils are shown in the Fourth Schedule to the Bill. The number of passenger journeys by the services of undertakings transferred by the Bill to the board is approximately 10,000,000 a day. The daily vehicle mileage of undertakings transferred is in round figures 350,000 in the case of railways and 950,000 in the ease of omnibuses and tramcars. The area of the London passenger transport area is approximately 2,000 square miles and the population is approximately 9,500,000.