TRANSPORT RE-ORGANIZATION.
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With Special Reference to the Disorganization which the New Railway Methods Have Brought About.
By Granville F. Bilbrough.
IT IS EVIDENT that public opinion is ,genuinely alarmed at the serious breakdown of the transport facilitieS of the country. 'ir the attention paid to the matter in the Press be any criterion, no other issue is agitating it to anything like the same extent ; and, withal, there is a growing realization of the, complete dependence of our industrial life upon
the transport services. .
Perhaps, in the pre-war days, we were. too aprto take the relative efficiency and smartness of the railways for granted—as we normally accept the other good things of lifee-Init Ijciw we are learning in a hard school what extenSive economic losses follow in the wake of diminished transport facilities. Thus, we hear of blast furnaaes closing down in the North through the impossibility of maintaining supplies of raw material ; we are credibly informed that the London consumers are paying 22 per ton more for potai oeS because the shortages cannot be neutralized by 'adequate quantities, from the Eastern Counties; goods are held up in all directions for as much as six weeks before they can be marketed, and so on.
Why Half a Million Tons of Coal Was Lost.
One of the most telling recent indictments is that of Mr. Finlay Gibson,., of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners' Association, who pub-, lishes statistics showing that between January 1st and September 30th of this year 1,548 shifts, and, consequently, some '523,000 tons of coal were lost through
want of wagons in that area.
Though it is the Englishman's prerogative to grumble, it cannot be said with instances of this character, that he lacks material for.his.plaint. The surprising feature in the whole of the Press criticisms, however, is the absence of any attempt to probe the actual causes of the disorganization—apart from bald announcements attributing it to wagon shortage—or to sugg'est methods of effecting a speedy return to normal conditions.
Before dealing with this side of the question, one must recognise that exceptional conditions, a-s, an aftermath of the war, are quite inevitable. Not one of the belligerent countries escaped without a violent re-action of war stress upon its transport facilities. The railways suffered in general deterioration of the way, plant and personnel, and every allowance will be made for that in the remarks which follow,
Within a certain time after the termination of ho,stilities, it was reasonable to expect that the point of minimum efficiency would be reached, and afterwards a steady recovery witnessed.
Those who 'harboured such an expectation, however, find themselves greatly deceived. Notwithstanding an 'easing of the total tonnages carried, as compared 'with the most strenuous periods of the war, the steady development 'ofthe coastwise trade again, an increase in specialized labour through the demobilization of their trained staff, a return of wagons from the -Front in considerable numbers, and a further 8,500 new vehicle's put into commission, there has been an acute aggravation of the congest-ion generally throughput the. co-entry. ,
Hardly a district appears free frorn the malady. Total embargoes, temporary restrictions and constant limitations of quantity are now the traffic rule, and it becomes necessary to find whether this crescendo of disorganization is the normal devehipment of war stress, or is not, rather, the consequence of changed 'methods of working.upon the railways and the application of new principles in traffic working---'principles in themselves generally unobjectionable, but introduced in an abnormal period, thus making confusion worse confounded.
All indications would appear to justify the latter assumption. It is, therefore, desirable, to deal with them in some detail, especially those which not only act detrimentally upon the railwayservices, but also Oraerate in innumerable instances to the detriment of the traders themselves.
First in importance is the new scheme, which is known as the "allocation of traffic." I have previously referred to it in these columns, but its crippling effect upon the trader is so great as to merit a more detailed examination. Its general object is: to secure that traffic between two points, which previously travelled by two or more competitive routes, shall be concentrated at one railway .depot only and sent in bulk instead of in parcels. This ensures fuller loading of wagons and possibly a saving in mileage hauled, for the favoured company will generally be that possessing the shorter route.
The Faults of Traffic Allocation:
In theory all right, it is in practice not easy to adjust these allocations so as to make a balance of traffic to the respective routes. Consequently, one line gets more than its share and another less. Even before the war, when the various working. arrangements of the companies were becoming common, this was found to be the result of the allobation SeheEaes tentatively adopted, and not a few of the old embargoes Upon traffic then imposed were attributable to this cause. NOW that allocation is general, it is easy tO understand the ouinulative effect of these local disorganizations spread all over the country.
Whatever merits such schemes may possess to the railways, in the net result, however, the effect upon the trader is all in the wrong direction. First, it is a denial of those reasonable facilities which are imposed upon the railways under' the Traffic Acts, and is therefore of doubtful legality. Further, it robs the trader of the use of the alternative routes he WEIS formerly enabled to employ. Under old conditions, if one company were unable to carry his traffic through congestion, he could hand it to another. This he is now prohibited from doing. Should the company who has the allocation be blocked out with goods, he must keep them in his warehouse until they clear. Thereare many instances, both in respect of exports and goods for the home market, in which the trader has bad to wait for six weeks for " permission " to forward. As, often, he cannot discount his bills until the finished product ha 's'passed, .these periods of waiting tie him up in an unpleasant fashion. This is not. thewhole, or even the chief part of the troubles into which he is. landed by the allocation Scheme. Previously, his choice of a line was determined by the position and accessibility of the terminal .station and its contiguity to the premises of the consignee. Now, the traffic is dispatched without any regard to this factor. As a consequence, the cartage distance is increased at the destination—in some instances quadrupled. In this lies the secret of a, lot more congestion and delay, and a. lot more additional cost is thrown on the cartage charges, affecting net merely the traders but the railway companies them
Why the Railway Companies Cartage. are Given the
In the Star of November 1.7th; there was an "official " statement of the reasons for existing congestion in which it was. significantly asserted that traders were giving up their vans and allowing the companies to do the carting for them. Quite so j but, it did not appear to the writer that the chief reason for this altered policy was largely attributable to the action of the companies. It is one of the instances of saving sixpence and losing a shilling. 'If, in the allocation of traffic, they finally land it at a depot a mile or two more remote from the eonsignee's premises than he has been wont to receive it, what more natural than that he should accommodate them with the luxury of carting it.
If a calculation could be made, one would not be surprised to hear that this excess cartage far outweighed any saving in the allocation, for haulage is the more negligible cost in railway operatiow. What is more, the incentive of the trader to hand over the cartage to the companies is intensified by the low cartage rebate they allow him. In the provinces, it rarely exceeds more than is. 6d. per ton, though far higher charges are allowed for in the inclusive, rate. In these days of heavy costs, Is. 6d. per ton will hardly entice a firm to cart goods three or four miles.
This factor naturally accentuates congestion, for, if goods have to he carted twice the distance, they will only be cleared at a much Offer mete. The wagons remain under load, blookineup the working space, checking, shunting, and all the other terminal arrangements and operations_ There will be less space for empties and, as a result, less goods can be sent out. What is more, the warehouse platforms will be piled. up with goods and work there be much more difficult.
There is one modification of the " allocation" scheme which is most .urgently needed in the interests of traders and railways alike. It should be restricted to unconsig,ned traffic, i.e., goods not earmarked for delivery at any particular station. Where the trader specially desires delivery at a certain point for cartage reasons, it should be sent.
Another scheme of doubtful utility and, certainly, inopportune in a period of abnormality, is the recent wholesale revision of the official "route lists," under which traffic has been turned in a wholesale manner from the old-established routes of more than half a century. In this instance, too, the idea has been to reduce the actual mileage hauled. The point to which sufficient attention has not been directed, however, is, what one might call the historical development of the railways. The OM routes were built up upon the regular flow of traffic over a long period, and their .conveniences, accommodations, etc., have been fixed in accordance with that flow. _Here, the lines have been doubled ; there, has been established a sorting siding, and junctions and marshalling yards have been fixed to Meet the requirements. What is more, these facilities ensured, under the old i.egim4, with the n40 impulse of competing facilities, a one-day's transit between allethe principal points of industrial activity.
Jamming the Railways With Added Traffic.
Now, without 'regard to this historical growth, the traffic is being 'diverted to entirely different routes, _oftento lines already jatarned with trains, and whose facilifies are tried to the uttermost with their own normal business. It is one thing to transfer the goods to another, route, but their operation requires the facilities and 3onveniertce-s which went along with them.
As, however, one cannot rout up a siding or a mar,shalling yard, the problem appears to be that of the wagons in one place and the yards in another. Anyhow, it is a fact that traffic is at least twice as long on the way as formerly. Five of the leading Sheffield firms recently got out statistics to show that their traffic operating within a -radius of 50 miles (for which the pre-war transits were one day) now never took less than two days' and, in half of the cases, it took from three to six days. When it is 'borne in mind how these extra loaded wagons on the lines for the additional -days must paralyze operations, not to mention the corresponding depletion of empty stocks it is not to be wondered at that we are in the throe's of an acute breakdown in our facilities.
On the general wagon policy of the'administration, it is difficult to -s-peak with any assurance, for one Cannot estimate to what extent the foregoing causes are contributory to the undoubted' shortage which is so manifest in. all directions, and is the central gravamen of present complaint. One fact emerges: the requisite number of wagons are never available at the place at Which Alley are required, and the extent; oven of loo.al defitits, is well illustrated by the South Wales coal trade, to which allusion has been made.
Pooling of Wagons a Defective Scheme.
When all allowances are made, it does not appear that the pooling scheme with .Central organization and distribution is working very well, or in any way justifies the rather optimistic prophecies with which it was launched. Many reasons may contribute to this. First there is not the incentive to get wagons when and where required, ivhich• obtained when the railways were severally interested in Maintaining the prestige and the tonnage of their own particular lines. When they were all out for traffic, they knew that a failure of wagon supply meant a diversion to their competitors: now they are not particular whether they have the goods or not. Its reception only means so much more work.
Or, again, there is nowa calculated policy to limit return empty haulage to the minimum—probably to substantiate the remarkable economies mentioned in the -House of Commons, asthe direct result of poolbig. More so than in the old days when wagons were bound to work back to their respective districts and kept the distribution fairly constant. One will wait with interest to see the next statistics of empty working with a desire to ascertain whether the economy is, in any way, commensurate with the losses and inconveniences imposed upon the trade of the country by these new schemes.
In view of the situation, moreover, there is increasing perturbation amongst the traders and the owners themselves, as to the possible consequence of the 'proposed incorperation into the scheme of the 700,000 private wagons, an anxiety that is not unfounded in all the circumstances of the ease.. The previous experience hardly appears to warrant such a formidable experiment, the consequences of which are incalculable.