Peyton's unwelcome message for 'conservationists'
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More than 90 per cent offreight traffic can't go by rail
• Over 90 per cent of freight journeys are less than 50 miles and most neither start nor finish near a railhead, Mr John Peyton. Minister for Transport Industries, told the National Conference for the Protection of the Countryside at the University of Warwick last week.
The total volume of this traffic was likely to increase by about 49 per cent within a decade.
The figures carried an unwelcome message, said Mr Peyton, "but it is a message which we have to receive and understand and seek to grapple with its contents rather than reject it as unpalatable and fool ourselves that there are easy answers available. The real choice before us is whether we allow towns and villages to be inundated or relieve them by providing the modern roads to take the traffic which is a feature of modern life in every developed country in the free world."
The Minister said he was not ignoring the contribution of the railways, or their potential. Increasingly fast and comfortable Inter-City traffic with the prospect of London to Glasgow in four hours, commuter services and long-distance bulk-freight trains were roles in which the railways were pre-eminent.
The Government was not hostile to the railways which had received £3000 million of support since the war. There was a readiness to invest in them, use them and consult with them as to how and where their role could be increased to the economic benefit of the nation.
Both the Channel tunnel and Maplin would result in notable extensions of the rail system. The Minister pointed out that railways carried only 8 per cent of the passenger mileage and 18 per cent of the freight ton-mileage at present. Even if rail freight could be increased by 50 per cent the total of road traffic would be reduced by less than 2 per cent.
This year, the Government would• support the railways to the extent of £140 million. "I hope this year to put before Parliament proposals for the future of British Rail but I have already said that the Government does not see a draconian cutting-down of the network as the answer to the problems either of the railways or of the nation."
Mr Peyton declared that he favoured a policy of confining to designated routes large vehicles for which there was no place in narrow streets and country lanes. The policy required a network of first-class roads linking the main centres of production and population with adequate routes to the ports and by-passing the small towns and villages. It was wishful thinking to suppose that congestion, pollution and danger could be controlled without such a road system.
The old rule that a vehicle was free to go wherever it liked has to be changed and large vehicles confined to roads and streets where there was room for them.
"In this country we have embarked upon a five-year programme to develop the silent lorry. In Europe we are taking the initiative in proposing a reduction in noise limits for all motor vehicles in 1975."
New requirements
New diesel engines from April this year had to be so designed that they did not make visible smoke. Restrictions upon hydrocarbons and lead emissions from petrol engines would become increasingly strict.
A new power/weight ratio requirement would gradually cut down the nuisance of the "crawling and almost motionless monster which on any kind of gradient so quickly achieves a frustrating and impotent tail of outraged motorists.
"We aim to set up a national network of lorry parks which though not always welcome in the place chosen will make it possible to prevent the random parking of lorries in residential areas."
The Act of 1972 had made it possible to tackle the menace of the overloaded foreign vehicle. Operators' licensing had undoubtedly resulted in better maintained, safer road transport vehicles. The Department's enforcement staff had been increased by 25 per cent. Random checks were being made both at the road side and at operators' premises. The reports of Licensing Authorities show a downward trend in prohibition for bad maintenance.
Mr Peyton continued: "I am sure you are right to be vigilant and to defend what you value; right to watch whether the machine does not just roll along with the sheer unquestioning momentum of its own plans, but may I plead with you to avoid deploying your considerable influence in such a way as to make this country the one where the decisions come most slowly and the action is always too late."