A Railway Monopoly in I • F• S•
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BUS OPERATION
Government Intervention in Road Passenger Transport has Given the Railways and the D.U.T. Concern Monopolistic Powers
IN the issue of The Commercial Motor dated June 15, a Special Correspondent in Ireland explained the manner in which the Dublin road-passenger-transport concerns were being rapidly absorbed by the Dublin United Tramways Co.. Ltd., which company, under the provisions of the Irish Free State Road Transport Act, 1933, is entitled to obtain a monopoly of the passenger road-motor services within its area. That Act gives to all those railway companies which were operating bus services prior to 1929 the opportunity of securing a similar monopoly in their respective areas.
As in the case of the D.U.T., the railways are given power to apply to the Minister of Industry and Commerce for the compulsory transfer of licences held by road-transport concerns which would not agree to hand over their services.
Government Control of Transport.
There is little difficulty in defining the areas served by the different railway companies. As early as 1924, Government control of transport commenced, for in that year the Railways Act, aiming at the unification of the entire railway systems within the country, was enforced. As a result of this Act, 26 railway companies, the systems of which lay entirely within the Irish Free State, were amalgamated to form the present extensive undertaking of the Great Southern Railways, serving seven-eighths of the total area of the country.
The companies not included were those running into Northern Ireland, and their systems could not, on that account, be divided up to participate in the reconstructional scheme in the Free State. With the exception of the Great Northern Railway, the five remaining cross-border companies were small, having an aggregate route mileage of 618, 332 of which belonged to the G.N.R. The G.S.R., on the other hand, operated on 2,186 miles of track. •
This was an ambitions move on the part of the Government to coordinate rail transport, but it followed that if the Government took upon itself power to interfere in the control of the railways, it also had -to accept the responsibility of protecting the railways, especially the Great Southern concern, which it had entirely created.
From 1924, road-passenger transport began to oppose the railways_ It is to the credit of those pioneers of passenger road-motor services, who had to fight so formidable an opponent as a national railway system with the sympathy of the Government on its side, that their suc Gess was assured from the first. The popularity of these early bus services was sufficient seriously to affect the all-powerful railways ; the Great Southern Railways never earned the standard revenue intended by those responsible for the framing of the Act of 1924.
Railways' Power to Run Buses.
In 1927, the Railways (Road-Motor, Services) Act, empowering the railway companies to operate bus services, was introduced. The Great Southern Railways, serving the whole of Central and Western Ire-' land ; the Great Northern Railway, Operating the southern" cross-border routes, as far north as Portnoc and Lifford, and the Dublin-Cavan and north-east coastal routes ; and the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway, linking up the comparatively small area to the north of County Donegal with the Northern Ireland city of Londonderry, availed them-, selves of this authority.
Such an enactment tended only to intensify the uneconomic competition and consequent waste in the rapidly growing road-transport industry, without in any way solving the difficulties of the railway companies. In 1929, there were 153 bus concerns, operating 728 vehicles over 4,461 miles of road, employing 2,190 persons, and returning an aggregate revenue of £851,686, and of £16,690 for traffic, other than passengers, carried on service buses.
In the same year, the gross receipts for passenger traffic or the Great Southern and Great Northern Railways, the only two large railway
companies remaining, amounted to 21,574,391, as compared with 22,040,496 in 1926. During the latter year, these two railways carried between them 23,603,920 passengers, whilst in 1929 the total number carried was 22,827,340. Thus, in the, earliest period of road transport, the railways lost almost 1,000,0041 passengers and nearly 25 per cent, of their total passenger-traffic revenue. By means of the Road Transport Act, 1932, it was intended to create within the Free State three transport organizations identified with the areas served by the Great Northern and Great Southern Railways and the Dublin United Tramways Co., Ltd. The companies mentioned were empowered to purchase all the roadtransport concerns operating within their areas.
Practically a Railway Monopoly.
By the beginning of 1933, the G.S.R. had practically gained a monopoly of the passenger-transport in its area, and the G.N.R. had bought a few smaller concerns, but the D.U.T. had made no use of this authority.
The Main reason for the companies concerned not obtaining a transport monopoly was their failure to come to an agreement with the operators regarding the handing over of the systems.
In 1933, the Government, convinced that the nationalization of transport was the only effective. method of dealing with the problem --but, for political and other reasons, unable to take. the final step in that direction—framed the Railways and Road -Transport Acts, 1933, to meet the situation. In introducing these measures, the Minister for Industry and Commerce prophesied that the next Bill brought into the Dail, no matter what party was in power, would be for nationalization. "It is clear," he said, "that the railways are no longer essential to the country. If they are to be maintained, they must be made part of a wider and centrally controlled organization."
The sum purpose of the two Acts was to give the control of all passenger and certain goods transport to the railway companies, to provide for the closing of branch lines and unprofitable sections, and to co-ordinate, so far as possible, all traffic systems. The Railway Tribunal, which was already in existence, was to continue in the arbitration of all problems arising out of railway and road-motor-service administration, and to fix rates for the road and rail services operated by the railways.
Soon there will be no passengertransport concerns in the country other than the Great Southern, Great Northern and Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railways and the Dublin United Tramways Co., Ltd. A few independent operators remain, especially in the Dublin area, but it is not expected that their absorption will be delayed longer than the present year.
More Bus Passengers.
It is early yet to review the working of the new scheme, but it may he stated that, so far, the number of vehicle-miles run by buses, outside the Dublin city and suburban area, has not been cut down to any appreciable extent, when one considers the overlapping routes which have of necessity been cut out. The numbers of passengers carried on routes other than those served by the D.U.T. and the concerns within its area have steadily increased from 13,450,535 in 1929 to 24,581,657 in 1933. The number carried in 1932 was 24,923,964, but the traffic during that year was abnormal, owing to the fact that the International Eucharist Congress was held in Dublin.
In 1929, the gross receipts from bus operation outside the Dublin area were £530,643, whilst in 1933 the amount was £670,607. The figures for the first six months of this year show an increase in the number of passengers carried and a slight decrease in the receipts, as compared with the figures for services outside Dublin for the first half of 1933. Up to June 30, this year, 12,959,000 passengers were carried and the gross receipts for all bus traffic totalled £288,642, as compared with 11,574,000 passengers and £297,885 for the same period of last year.
In 1926, the peak period of railway travel in Ireland, the two railways, the Great Northern and Great Southern, carried 26,603,496 passengers. Last yeat, the total number of passengers carried by service buses in all parts of the country was 85,487,370, and this year that figure will probably be exceeded. The figures for bus passengers given in this article are in no case inclusive of persons carried by coach.
At the present tinie, there are in the Free State 75 bus licensees, 35 of which earn under £100 per month and 14 over £1,000. There are 809 public-service vehicles, 481 of which have a seating capacity of over 27 and the total number having a seat ing capacity of 21,767. Never have the bus services in the Free State covered so many miles of road as they do now (5,046). Never were so many persons employed in the industry, there now being 3,377 workers.