Road Transport Topics In Parliament
Page 35
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By Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent
HAULIER RESPONSIBLE FOR ROAD_ DAMAGE.
RGAR DING • the subsidences into the road of a vehicle carrying a 95ton load in the Gretna district, Mr. Neil Maclean asked the Minister of Transport a number of questions. He wished to know whether the cost of repairing the damage would have to be borne by the local authorities, or by the concern responsible, and what action he proposed to take to prevent these heavy loads being taken by road?
Captain Wallace replied that with regard to the trunk road the hauliers had been informed of the damage, and that a claim would be made under the indemnity which was given by the concern before the load was taken over the road. In respect of the secondclass road he assumed that the highway authority concerned would take similar action to recover the cost of the damage. caused.
Abnormal loads might be carried only by vehicles of special type and subject to conditions laid down in the Motor Vehicles (Authorisation of Special Types) Order (No. I) 1937. It was necessary on occasions to take by road heavy indivisible loads, and so far as he was aware the provisions of the Order worked satisfactorily on the whole, (A good feature of the scheme seems to us to be that the roads, in this way, will ultimately, be improved. —ED.)
NO ALTERATION OF PRESENT LAW.
THEN Mr. Maclean asked if it was not time that such heavy loads were prevented from using roads of inadequate strength to bear them, and that the conditions, under which permission was given to operators to carry them, were revised.
To this the Minister stated that it was in the public interest that these loads should be conveyed from place to place. There were certain loads which could not be carried by rail for various reasons. If, as in this case, steps were taken to ensure that damage to the public highway was repaired at the cost of the people who took the loads, it seemed to him that the public interest was being served best by leaving the law as it was. (We congratulate the Minister on his appreciation of the manner in which road transport is serving the public—ED.) -To the suggestion that the bridges were not strong enough for these exceptional loads and that many of the rail-. ways would be damaged as well as the roads, Captain Wallace said that no load of this kind would be allowed to go over any bridge unless his Department was satisfied that the bridge was able to carry it.
DISUSED-TRAMRAIL COVERING STIPULATED.
WHEN trams were superseded by W other means for transport, would the Government ensure, asked Major Whiteley, that the tram lines were at once removed or covered.
Captain Wallace explained that the statutory liability of the tram operator was usually limited to restoring the road to the condition in which it was before the tramway was laid. In most cases, however, such restoration would be inadequate to meet modern conditions, so it was the usual practice of the highway authority to accept a lump sum in satisfaction of this liability and itself to remove the rails when the road was repaired or reconstructed.
He had no power to compel highway authorities to put any particular works in hand, but they were all well aware of the desirability of removing or covering the tracks so soon as possible.
When trolleybuses were substituted for trams the condition of the track was always taken into account before the trolleybus route was authorized, and it was the practice of his Department to stipulate that the rails should be filled in with suitable material pending their removal.
THE PROBLEM OF OCCUPATION CROSSINGS.
WHAT action, asked Mr. Ellis Smith, was to be taken to carry out the conclusions of the chief inspecting officer of railways. contained in the Report on Accidents, in particular with regard to level-crossings.
Captain Wallace answered that a number of schemes had been completed for dealing with public road crossings by the construction of bridges; the case of occupation crossings was more difficult.
The railways had submitted a report on over 22,000 such crossings, but until he had had an opportunity of considering the report of the chief inspecting officer on the recent accident at IIilgay he was unable to make any statement as to what action be could take. IMPORTANT LONDON TRAFFIC SCHEME -IN QUESTION.
rrHE Minister has been informed by
the London County Council that it proposes to prepare a scheme for relieving the traffic congestion at the Elephant and Castle, London, but that no decision has yet been reached. Whilst in favour of widening Union Road, to enable traffic between Newington Causeway and New Kent Road to avoid the Elephant and Castle, Captain Wallace thinks relief thus afforded would not provide a solution of the difficulties at this junction.
TRAFFIC DENSITY MAPS PROPOSED.
AN announcement was made to the effect that the report on the traffic census taken on Class I roads in August 1938, was being prepared and would he placed on sale to the public in due course. The Minister is considering whether maps can be included showing graphically the traffic density on roads radiating from important centres. (This strikes us as an obvious thing to do. Most business houses employ similar schemes—En,)
FACTORS INFLUENCING ROAD CAPACITY.
APLEA for expediting the construction and improvement of highways, -in proportion to the increase in the number of vehicles per mile during the past 10 years from 12.3 to 17.2, was made by Mr. Groves, but the Minister could not accept the precise inference drawn from the figures.
The traffic capacity of a road, he pointed out, depended, not on its length, but on its width, layout and form of construction, and a general average of traffic for the country as a whole was not necessarily any criterion of the necessities in any particular district. The density of traffic on the lengths of highway which it was proposed to modernize was a prime factor in dealing with road improvement programmes. (It might have been added that road capacity can also be increased by raising the speed at which vehicles may travel along it.—En.)