Rail Abstraction by Cut Rates Alleged
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RATE-CUTTING by the L.N.E. Railway Co. in order to acquire the traffic in bricks from Peterborough yards to Leicester—which has recently grown to considerable proportions and has been almost entirely road-bornewas alleged at a Leicester sitting of the East Midland Licensing Authority.
Mr. L. W. A. White, for Messrs. Sleath Bros., a Leicester firm engaged in brick traffic, who sought to acquire a 14-15-ton vehicle to replace a 5-tonner, said that his clients carried to Leicestershire, and until recently operated into the city as well.
The fact that recently no bricks had been offered to them to carry to the city prompted an inquiry to the London Brick Co. and Forders. The reply, which was read in court, was: "The reason that bricks for Leicester are not now being sent by road, but by rail, is not due to inefficient service. The matter is merely one of arrangement between ourselves and the railways." Mr. White commented : "What that means is that the very thing the railways are complaining about has taken place. If the road operator takes traffic once rail-borne, never mind what are the merits of the service he gives, it is suggested that it is an abstraction of traffic from the railways. Exactly the same thing has happened here, on the part of the railway.
"One is driven to a certain conclusion. The railway company has secured our traffic and there is some suggestion on the part of the London Brick Co. that we should go to the railway company to transport the railborne bricks from station to site."
Mr. White submitted that this was not an instance of the railway securing the return of former traffic which it
had lost to the road operators, because never before had bricks in such quantities come from Peterborough to Leicester.
The application was refused.