Road Transport Topics in Parliament
Page 39
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By Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent
NATIONAL EMERGENCY MEASURES.
LAST week the Minister of Transport gave the House of Commons a broad outline of the arrangements to meet national emergency in the departments within his purview. He prefaced his remarks by saying that, for evacuation by rail, terminal stations would not be used but peripheral stations.
• In time of war mobility was essen tial. Large numbers of men, stores and materials must be transported. The Army and the Air Force must be served and there was the big organisation of the evacuation of population, the movement of munitions and fuel and the transfer of food, besides the carrying on of the essential business of the country..
DOCK TRANSPORT. PREPARATIONS.
ABIG demand would be made on the transport facilities of all kinds when the emergency occurred. With regard to decks, there were 285 separate docks and harbours in this country. For the purposes of emergency some 45 had been treated as the principal docks and harbours, ,aud in every one Of these, was working a transit emergency committee. Ports Must -carry out whatwere known as -good employer obligations. Au _employer had a•moral obligation_ to protect his workpeople in time of emergency. It was proposed by the • Government. that . this should be converted into a legal obligation "and measures for that _purpose would be introduced to the House shortly. It would probably be necessary to take steps not merely to protect the people but to ensure that the essential services of the port remained operative.
NOT THE TIME FOR SQUARE DEAL TALK.
DEALING with railways and roads, Mr. Burgin gave some idea of the steps that had been taken to keep the " iron backbone " of the country available for the strain to which it would be subjected upon an outbreak of war. It was not the time to talk about a square deal, he said.
He hoped the interests of railways, roads and traders would all have the good sense to reach some agreement of a kind which he could implement by legislation and bring to the House at an early date. He was glad to know that progress had been made and he hoped the Transport Advisory Council would send him their report an the draft agreement before them, so that he might be able to come to the House with something in the nature of an agreed Bill.
COST A SECONDARY MATTER.
THE railways, not doing too well, were faced, in providing against a national emergency, with a heavy expenditure to protect an essential
part of the defence of the country. He had been negotiating, first for the work to be begun, and afterwards would consider how it was to be paid for.
Work had been put in hand and a vast amount had been done in connection with a pool of breakdown trains, and with the provision of a large deposit of spares for the repair of vulnerable places.
ROAD TRANSPORT PLANS.
A ARANGEMF,NTS had also been rt made for goods transport by road. There were about 500,000 vehicles arid 200,000 owners.
The country had been divided into regions, and the Chairmen of the Traffic Commissioners had been made the chairmen of those regions. These had been again divided into districts and sub-districts, and' arrangements had been made for groups of different vehicles to be formed in each of these sub-districts.
,Unlike the railways, which had unlimited supplies of coal at their backs, the road was completely at the mercy of 'imported fuel,, which Would, in all probability, he severely rationed. There would not be enough for all and sundry, and a certain method of inducing members of the road-transport industry to come into, the groups was to make it quite clear that the rationed fuel would go to those id the groups and not to those outside.
OPERATORS' FINE SUPPORT.
HE had obtained a satisfactory response to the arrangements made for bringing this great industry into a proper perspective in connection with the nation's requirements. He expressed his indebtedness to all the members of the different committees, to the different unions concerned for their part in concurring, and in particular to the operators who were showing such a. fine sense of responsibility in responding to this call.
As for road repairs, it was necessary to have supplies of material to strengthen essential bridges,, and of what was called " fill " in engineering language, to rebuild parapets and roadways damaged by shell or bomb. All arrangements of that kind, the Minister declared, had been made.
DAZZLE OBLIGATIONS FORGOTTEN?
THE Minister informed Mr. Day that .I. he had recently had under consideration the matter of the regulations made on April 30, 1936, for restricting and controlling the dazsle caused by head lamps. He agreed that drivers needed to be reminded of their obligations, and hoped shortly to issue a statement on the subject. MINISTER'S APATHY TO RAILWAYS' BREACH OF FAITH.
WAS the Minister aware, asked Mr. D. Adams, that the L.N.E.R. had briefed counsel to oppose the applications for A licences of important and long-established hauliers engaged in transporting fish from North Shields. Also, as this step appeared to conflict with the assurances given by the railways that they had no desire to interfere with other forms of transport, did he propose to take action?
In reply, Mr. Burgin explained that he had no power to take action on the lines suggested, to which Mr. Adams said, did not the Minister agree that the apathy he was showing was a distinct encouragement to the railways to attack other legitimate forms of transport.
The Minister, however, thought that his saying he had a6 power to do something was not a sign of apathy.
Mr. Holdsworth then 'suggested some alteration of the law which gave people power to put their competitors out of business.
Attempts were being made, answered Mr. Burgin, to reach agreement between rail and road interests on-a fturnlier of points, of which this wasone. • . He understood that some agreement had actually been reached and _that it lin cl been submitted to the Transport Advisory. Council for their views. He sincerely hoped that some modus vivendi might be arrived at,
No reply was forthcoming to Mr. Lipson's question as to whether the Ministei shared his view that action of this kind by the railway companies made agreement very difficult.
ROAD SAFETY SUGGESTION IMPRACTICABLE.
REFERREFERRING to a suggestion that RING should seek powers to control the erection of illuminated advertisements on roads, Mr. Burgin said legislation on the lines suggested would involve formidable difficulties and he was not satisfied that it would be warranted in present circumstances.
EXPENDITURE ON HIGHWAYS.
I T was stated that the total expendi tare in 1937-8, for highway purposes, including trunk roads, was estimated to amount to approximately £59,000,000, of which about £40,000,000 was provided by local highway authorities and £19,000,000 by the Road Fund. The expenditure on new construction amounted to some £4,500,000..
TOLL BRIDGE ELIMINATION. QINCE 1930, Mr. Burgin stated, 19 toll bridges have been purchased with the help of grants from the Road Fund with a view to being freed from tolls. He is prepared to consider proposals from highway authorities for freeing remaining toll bridges. .