Rail Case Against Nationalization " P UBLIC interest will best be
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served by the existiag organization, working under revised conditions, and subject to the control of a statutory tribunal for the protection of the public against
unreasonable charges or inadequate facilities. The Road-Rail Agreement provides the framework."
This suggestion is made in a pamphlet entitled "The Railways and the Future," which has been published by the four main-line railway companies. It reviews past achievements, outlines plans for development and sets out some of the objections of the railways to nationalization. .
The companies maintain that the present, when so much reconstruction and development work is urgently necessary, is not the time for experi
menting with State ownership. As an alternative, it is recommended that the railways should be relieved of some of their statutory obligations and be placed on an equal footing with other form-. of transport.
More than £120,000,000 has been set aside by the tailways for deferred maintenance, says the pamphlet.
So long as C-licence holders are free ta cairy their own goods, there can be no monopoly of transport, the railways point out. The proposals of the RoadRail Agreement provide for a large measure of co-ordination with a minimum of disturbance. They leave ample scope for enterprise on a fair and competitive basis, and go far to eliminate the waste admitted to exist in wholly unregulated competition.
The railways declare that, on the basis of present levels of wages and costs of materials, an increase in railway rates of 37 per cent, above pre-war figures would produce the net revenue required by the Minister of Transport_ " The proposed increase of 37 per cent. is considerably below the increase in price levels generally," it is stated_
Another argument against nationalization is that the present companies are as large as can, in practice, be managed from a central headquarters.
"Before any proposals for nationalization are laid before Parliament, there should be a public inquiry before an impartial tribunal into the manner in which the railways have met their obligations to the public and into any scheme which the Government contemplates," the companies demand.
RALLY NEXT WEEK
ON October 22 the Western Sub-area (Metropolitan Area) of the Road Haulage Association will hold a rally at the Star and Garter Hotel, Kew, at 7.30 p.m., to report on: (1) Progress of the anti-nationalization carnpaign; (2) road-rail licensing scheme; (3) Fawkner rates schedule. All hauliers are invited to attend.