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SECONDARY TRAFFIC.

9th December 1919
Page 14
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Page 14, 9th December 1919 — SECONDARY TRAFFIC.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

British Pratice of Using Free Vehicles Better for This Country Than the Belgian Fixed-line Method.

By an Engineer.

THE REMARKABLE services rendered by road vehicles ,during the railway strike gave a great impetus to the movement in favour of road transport, and have even led some imaginative enthusiasts to foretell the approaching supersession of railways. No sane student of the problems of transport can see any grounds for contemplating so revolutionary a change. The replacement of railways by road vehicles is not yet in sight and is not even indicated as the end towards which evolution is .tending. It is not possible to define with minute precision the limits of the several services that will in the future be rendered by railways and by each of several other methods of•transport, but it can, at least, be regarded as axiomatic that railways will, in general, be relied on for the vast majority of services involving long hauls, high speeds and heavy loads.

Railways will, in fact, continue to be the main arteries of transport, and on them will depend the primary traffic of the country. Broadly speaking, they are analogous to a network of high-tension transmission lines uniting distant centres of electrical production and consumption. Just as at each such electrical centre there, is needed a local low-tension, or ' leconclary, distributing network, so does organized transport require local systems of collection and distribution. Traffic of this type, involving as a general rule short hauls, moderate speeds and, light loads, may not inappropriately be described as secondary traffic.

Secondary traffic has hitherto suffered from the fact that the means of conveyance are inadequate for the req.uirements: It is not too much to say that, in most rural areas, the needed facilities do not exist at all. Transport must, therefore, be an important item in any programme of rural development, such. as that which was recently expounded by the Prime Minister. The opportunity was not then taken to describe the rural transport policy of the Govern

meat in detail; in fact, the Prime Minister's speech dealt with the need rather than the means. Possibly the'technical 'aclitisers of the Government have not yet formulated their plans and are still weighing the relative merits of light railways and road transport.

It is therefore opportune to reflect that the advocacy of light railways proceeds from influential quarters and is supported on the grounds both of military experience and of extensive use in Belgium. The military argument is to be found in an official manifesto, issued before-the General Election in December of last year, in which the successful employment of light railways behind the lines was advanced in demonstration of their suitability for rural transport in this country. The Belgian argument appears in a summary, published in The Times of October 21st, of the rural programme of the National Democratic Party, the labour wing of the coalition :—" A great development of transport both for persons and commodities . . . . A great extension of light railways on the economical basis adopted in Belgium. Motor lorries to be used to the fullest extent and system of road transport to be organised:"

The fallacy of seeking, in military improvisations, the solution of commercial problems is probably more obvious snow than it was Within a few weeks of the cessation of active warfare, but the Belgian analogy is more appropriate and, by so much, the more dangerous and misleading. • The illusion lies in the implied assumption that Belgian roads and streets are comparable with those of Great. Britain.•

The surfaces of Belgian street t are inferior to those in British towns and they are traversed by innunaer-.. able tramway lines, laid and maintained in a manner which would not be tolerated here. The contrast between the respective country road' is even more marked. In Belgium, the roads are either inferior macadam or are crudely paved with rough uneven stone setts. They are not in the same class as the splendid highways which permeate our rural districts. By their fruits ye shall, know them! Belgium in comparison with this country is almost destitute of heavy motor traffic. No intelligent British observer can fail to notice the infrequency of motor lorries and motorbuses in Brussels, for• instance, and their almost total absence in the country districts. Nor would he fail to .attribute this phenomenon to the nature and condition of the road surfaces.

To compare British and Belgian practice in respect of secondary traffic is to compare methods a hich are fundamentally different in conception and tendency. Secondary traffic mast either be conducted by road or by rail, by one or the other, but not by both. Belgium decided on rails, and has constructed light railways "oh an economical basis" to connect her urban centres with the surrounding rural areas. Belgium, too, his pursued • her settled policy consistently.and logically. She has dealt with her roads in a manner consonant with their relatively low status, and she hauls her light railway rolling stock over the tram rails into the midd:e of her towns.

Great. Britain, on the other hand, is Committed to road transport. Our streets and roads are unsurpassed by those of any other country and, though tramlines are permitted in our cities-, they are laid and maintained with Unique regard to the road surface. In this country, not Merely the past -practice but also the tendency of secondary traffic of every kind is all in the direction of road transport. Tramways have virtually ceased to be buifa, while mechanically-propelled road vehicles for passenger and goods services swarm in the streets and are rapidly extending their activ;ties into the country. Higher and even higher standards are being set for the construction of roads and are being applied to constantly increasing mileages.

We have been as consistent in our road policy as Belgium has been in her rail policy. Our only lapse is the admission of tramways, but that happened long before the advent of inechanically-prope:led road vehicles. Even then, we did allpossible to safeguard the roads by insisting on an unprecedented standaecl of excerence in the laying and maintaining of tramlines. By the observance OT these requirements tramways have succeeded, at eammous cost, in causing comparatively little injury to road surfaces, but the inflexibility of railloound traffic is the cause of constant and growing interference with other traffic and adds greatly tothe congestion of the streets.

If British tramways co-ordinate so badly with road traffic how imtneasurably worse would be the effect of attempting to combine road services with light railways built on the "economical Belgian basis.

Whatever our future policy is to be, it must be holly road or wholly rail. We cannot run with the

rail and hunt with the road. We cannot indulge in Belgian light railways and simultaneously " organize a system of road transport." Though committed to a policy of road traction for secondary traffic, we are not committed irrevocably. "Road" could yet be

wiped from the slate and " substituted. The countryside would then be covered with a network of light railways, roads would cease to be reconstructed and Maintained at their present standard and would be relegated to the service of light traffic and pleasure cars. There would be a. vast extension of tramway Imes and a great depreciation of their qua:ity. Over them would run. the economical rolling stock of the economical light railways, bringing the produce of agricuitural4districts to, for instance, Covent Garden, via Westminster Bridge and Whitehall, Waterloo Bridge and the Strand, Piccadilly, Oxford Street, -Edgware Road and other main thoroughfares. The prospect is not alluring. but it is the logical and inevitable end to which the Belgian system. leads.

In respect of traffic intermediate beteen. primary and secondary, the respective functions of road and rail are less easily defined. Hem, if anywhere, is the opening for light railways, not of the Belgian type, but restricted to private rights of way and with bridges at all road crossings. The function of these light railways would be to connect important rural centres with the railways and they would, therefore, be, in effect, branch lines. They would be part of the railway system and would not obstruct or interfere with road traffic.

Great advances have yet to be made before road transport can effectively and economically deal with secondary traffic on an adequate scale. Above all, the working casts of road vehicles must be reduced, but much can also be effected by so organizing traffic as to ensure full cargoes and a high daily mileage. On these lines road transport is already establishing a footing, and it would be disastrous if it were to encounter, at this early stage of its development, the subsidized competition of light railways of the Belgian type.

There is a very real danger that energies which should be concentrated on road transport will be dissipated in the pursuit of the Belgian ignis fatuus. Private enterprise, if it endeavoured to foist these " economical " light railways upon us, could never overcome the storm of opposition that would be aroused, but Government initiative, backed by the party machine, might overwhelm all resistance.

Nothing but the concerted efforts of all who are concerned with road transport can ensure that secondary traffic does not become the pawn of political opportunism.

Tags

Organisations: National Democratic Party
Locations: Brussels

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