AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Road congestion means new goods transport conditions

16th December 1966
Page 26
Page 26, 16th December 1966 — Road congestion means new goods transport conditions
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

"AiiiusT.Nis,, to the conditions under which goods are moved by road were foreshadowed by the Minister of Transport on Wednesday. In her annual report on roads, Mrs. Castle warned that new construction was not keeping pace with the rising tide of traffic and the spread of congestion. Giving notice that planning, integration and better use of the railways were all needed in addition to more cash, she said:— "A cardinal principle behind Government policy is the need to integrate transport services and planning in order to use expensive facilities and scarce resources as economically and effectively as possible.

"This means pre-eminently that the right balance must be struck between road and rail. This is particularly important for freight transport.

"Previous attempts to achieve this balance have failed from lack of knowledge about the relative costs of moving goods by road and rail, and research is now in hand into the total costs of road and rail transport over certain trunk routes, and the factors affecting industrial users' choice of transport.

"With the help of results from this research, which should be available soon, the Government will decide what adjustments are needed to the conditions of road transport operations."

Whatever the exact division of traffic, both freight and passenger, which emerged over the next few years, the railways would continue to play a significant part in the country's transport system, she added, especially in long bulk hauls and commuter services.

Road transport dominant

But road transport already had, and would continue to have, the dominant role. Sixty per cent of the ton miles of freight and nearly 90 per cent of passenger movement was by road. Therefore an efficient road network was vital to the economy.

Eighty per cent of the journeys made by lorry were of less than 25 miles distances over which rail could not generally offer a comparable service. And whereas in the past many factories and warehouses had their own rail sidings, most were now laid out for road transport "with its greater ability to provide a door-to-door service".

Mrs. Castle also acknowledged that the overwhelming bulk of exports were arriving at London and Liverpool by road, and this service was demanding special attention when road programmes were being drawn up.

The Minister's admission that England's main roads were slowly choking up was a shock, even to those who had suspected for years that construction was not keeping pace with congestion.

She said that, despite a Government spending programme mounting by 15 per cent a year, the present 1,450 miles of seriously overloaded trunk roads (out of a total of 5,400 miles) would have risen to 2,250 miles by 1970.

Mrs. Castle gave the firm impression that no vast crash road-building programme was at present planned to cope with it. At one point in her report, she made clear that the Government would have to look at what it could afford in inter

urban road building when the '70s came closer. Instead, her report showed all the signs that tight Government control is to be exercised over the road space available.

For passenger transport, she leaned heavily on her commitment to the creation of large urban authorities to integrate the system. And on congestion in town and city streets, she revealed that the Road Research Laboratory was developing the equipment to see whether or not road pricing was a "practicable technological possibility".

21-Week Depot: An 18,000 sq. ft. vehicle maintenance depot has been completed in 21 weeks at Wolverton, Bucks. for the Millbay Transport Co., a branch of Spillers Ltd.

Tags

Locations: Liverpool, London

comments powered by Disqus