§ Mr. Barnesasked the Minister of Transport whether arrangements will be made for taximeter cabs to have certain points in the City and West End, where they could pick up passengers for main line stations and spread the fare over the number of passengers carried?
§ Lieut.-Colonel Moore-BrabazonAs I understand it, my hon. Friend's proposal is that certain points should be fixed at which prospective passengers for the various main line railway terminals could congregate and wait to be picked1168W up by taxicabs which already carry passengers bound for the same terminals. In order to make any such scheme of real assistance to the travelling public it would be necessary to have a very large number of these picking up points scattered over a considerable part of the central area, and I am not sure that a scheme on these lines would be practicable. I would, however, be ready to consider sympathetically any more detailed proposal on the lines suggested by my hon. Friend, even if it meant some alteration of the existing law. I would point out that there is nothing to prevent any person who hires a taxicab from inviting other people to ride with him and share the fare, nor is there anything against people in bus queues arranging between themselves to hire a taxicab in order to reach their destinations quickly.