Calendar: 1975-1976 Page 400

xxviii Annual Report of the Delegacy administrator member of the academic staff as medieval historian and as the head of his old Oxford College has told me good one There are still aspects of the administration in the College which are on the old-fashioned side but would hesitate over any reform which might diminish the personal way in which we run our affairs It goes without saying that relations between the Principal and the Professors are close do not see how the place could run otherwise But what is also particularly pleasing is the closeness of the relationship with non-professorials Indeed would not be making this statement now if the Non-Professorial Staff Committee had not pressed me more than once to consider doing something of the sort have now some more to say about students who are never far from my mind and about undergraduate students in particular year or two ago my wife and missed train connection in Switzerland Ours arrived few minutes late just after the connecting train so designated in the timetable had pulled out dead on time complex long-distance journey we had planned some time before now lay about us in total ruin Our remonstrance to the Swiss station-master met only outraged rebuff 'You do not suppose he said 'that the trains are run for the benefit of the passengers He really said that promise you It is truism to assert that passenger transport exists for the purpose of carrying passengers In transport system the interests of the pas- sengers are of paramount importance in the design procurement and manning of equipment in the planning of routes and the drawing up of timetables But it is the interests of the majority of passengers as these interests emerge over significant period of time which have to be studied Sudden and costly change to meet the wishes of few might not be easy to justify This would be particularly the case if those who want the changes made are doing the journey for the first time have only done part of it when they make their wishes known and will have got off anyway before the changes become effective do not want to push the analogy between students and passengers on transport system too far for there are flaws in it as there are in all analogies Speaking with the caution due in addressing myself to gathering which contains the Chief Executive of London Transport however cannot help wondering whether London Transport would be right to take bus on the No 77 route off the road for modification because show of hands among the passengers between the Strand and