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Do the Railways Pay Their Share?

7th March 1922, Page 1
7th March 1922
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Page 1, 7th March 1922 — Do the Railways Pay Their Share?
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HE COMMERCIAL Motor Users Association has rendered a good service to the community by revealing the actual figures in respect of the incidence of local taxation. They show that, whilst the total local rates. receipts for Great Britain were L'71,276,00Ct in 1914. with a slow increase to £84,700,000 in 1919 and a rapid growth to £148,750,000 in 1921, the proportion borne by the railway companies has shown actual diminution. In 1914 the railway companies of Great Britain paid as their share of the rates £5,090,000, or 7.2 per cent, of the whole. Considering the fact that the railways constitute the greatest of our industries, even this proportion has never been considered high. But by the year 1.921 that proportion; had steadily fallen to 6.3 per cent., represented by the sum of £9,364,000.

And there is another point to be considered. The whole of the local rates levied on railways since the outbreak of the war have been paid by the taxpayer and not by the companies, for it has formed part of the State guarantees which only expired at the end of last August.

Let us, again, look at the cuestion of road user by the railway companies. The local taxation returns show show that for the year 1920 the total highway rates for the year paid by all the railway companies of Great Britain was roughly 21,550,000, to which about £85,000 can be added for taxation on railwayowned motor vehicles, making a total of 21,635,000. The railway companies, in the course of their propaganda., suggeat that this is a huge contribution to highway maintenance, but, in the opinion of competent judges, it does not represent a sum sufficient to cover the actual cost of the wear and tear of roads by the traffic to and from the railways.

There is not a large proportion of railway traffic that passes between and terminates at sidings; the majority of the traffic must at one or both ends of the journey be road borne, and, without the.highways, a large and important section of their traffic must be lost -to the railway companies. Therefore, the amount contributed by them—£1,635,000—was altogether too low when considered in relation to the £50,000,000 which annually is being spent upon the roads, of which £27,000,000 is provided by other ratepayers (including non-railway owners of motor vehicles), R9,000,000 by direct current motor taxation. and £10,000,000 by State grants from accumulated proceeds of direct motor taxation. The facts effectually dispose of the railway companies'. claim to be allowed, on the. score of fairness, to place more vehicles upon the roads. As a matter of tact, a ariod case can be made out for a comnlete revision of assessmentz of all railway undertakings for local taxation.


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