Minister on Road Transport's Attraction
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THE attraction of road transport was that it was a convenient means of taking goods from door to door, and the transfer of traffic from the railways was not a question of cost. This was one of a number of points made by Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, when he dealt with a variety of questions in the House of Commons last week.
Mr. H. J. Boyden (Lab., Bishop Auckland) asked whether plans for greater road-rail co-ordination could be made, and suggested the use of " train lorry ferries" which could take some heavy-vehicle traffic off the roads.
The Minister said that the British Transport Commission were looking into this idea. After Mr. R. J. Mellish (Lab., Bermondsey) stated that the matter of co-ordination was no longer "a political football," Mr. Marples remarked that the transfer of traffic from rail to road was happening all over the world.
"It is exactly the same all over the United States, where, even in Denver, the Denver-Chicago Trucking Co. can take goods by road from Chicago to Los Angeles, which is an enormous distance, more cheaply than they can go by rail," said the Minister.
He told Mr. Jo Grimond that having seen Continental bridge-construction techniques he was satisfied that British design matched work being done else
where. His visit to the U.S.A. gave him many new ideas on traffic flow and road safety which were now being studied.
Toll roads, he continued, were being abandoned in America, but he could not assure Mr. Grirnond that they were officially disfavoured in this country. The Minister promised the Liberal leader an early statement on London 'traffic plans, with special reference to the Pink Zone.
In a written reply to Mr. C Mapp (Lab., Oldham E.) Mr. Marples reiterated that Government policy was to ensure that both road and rail transport could each make effective contributions to the country's economic life.
"This is why we are pressing forward with a vigorous roads programme and giving considerable financial support. to the modernization of British Railways," said the Minister.
After Mr. John Hay, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, had told Mr. F. Noel-Baker (Lab., Swindon) that the first 73 miles of the London-Yorkshire motorway had cost about £395,000 a mile, the Opposition speaker suggested that this represented a huge subsidy to road transport at the railways' expense.
Mr. Hay said thal he could not agree with this "for the simple reason that the taxation yield on vehicles of all kinds in this country is £560m. a year."