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Railway Ignored Co-ordination : Complaint Not Now Justified

11th February 1949
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Page 9, 11th February 1949 — Railway Ignored Co-ordination : Complaint Not Now Justified
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

BECAUSE the former L.M.S. Railway Co. and its successor, the Railway Executive, had never tried to co-ordinate road and rail transport for the benefit of the public in the neighbourhood of the Kyle of Lochalsh, the Executive was not entitled to say that, in granting a licence to an independent Operator, the Scottish Licensing Authority had not paid due regard to road-rail co-ordination.

This observation was made by Mr. T. P. McDonald in his report to the Minister of Transport on an appeal by the Executive against the grant of a licence to Mr. S. F. Campbell for a stage-carriage service from the Kyle of Locbalsh to Inverness. The Minister has upheld this decision.

At the original hearing, petitions signed by members of the public and letters from "people of substance and infltience " were submitted. Mr. McDonald said that the Licensing Authority was entitled to take these views into account. They indicated that

the bus service would meet a long-felt need.

The Railway Executive, he pointed out, had offered no evidence in opposition to the contention that there was need for it.

So far as Mr. McDonald could gather, the Executive's main complaint was that the service would deprive the railway of some of its passengers between the Kyle of Lochalsh and Inverness. There was no doubt, he added, that this would be the case.. It was of some significance, however, that the R.T.E. had refrained from developing the aspect of any financial loss it might suffer as the result of Mr. Campbell's competition.

Mr. McDonald was not prepared to assume that the financial loss caused by the abstraction of passengers on two days a week for five months of the year would be so material as to outweigh the other considerations, which were so strongly in favour of the decision of the Scottish Licensing Authority.

FURNITURE REMOVERS ASK

R.T.E. TO SHOW ITS HAND VUITH an eye to the old Army saying VI' that time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted, the National Association of Furniture Warehousemen and Removers has sent a letter to the Road Transport Executive, seeking clarification of the position of its members with regard to certain classes of traffic after the appointed day.

The Association is concerned about the attitude of the Executive towards applications for permits for the carriage ,of traffic which cannot he classified as ordinary . furniture removals. A few examples have been quoted of the type of load for the carriage of which furniture removers are specially equipped.

The letter also cites the skill and experience of removal staffs in carrying out special long-distance removals, which, in the past, "have been regarded by many of them as a legitimate part of their business."

FIGHT FOR FREE HAULAGE

A'part of its policy of making known as widely as possible the fact that the bulk of the road haulage industry will remain outside the British Transport Commission, the Road Haulage Association is issuing blue and yellow stickers bearing the words "Support Road Transport under Free Enterprise."

They are suitable for attaching to letters; invoices, statements and other communications. They cost 3s. for 500, or 5s. for 1,000, and may be obtained from R.H.A. area offices or from headquarters at 146, New Bond Street, London, W.I.

DOUGLAS CARRIES ON

THE receiver and manager of Douglas (K in gs w o o d), Ltd., announces that he is continuing to manufacture for Douglas (Sales and Service), Ltd. industrial trucks and stillages. The trucks will, as before, be distributed in England through the sole concessionnaire, George Cohen, Sons and Co., Ltd., Wood Lane, London, W.12.

The Douglas design and development departments are being maintained at full strength, but no basic change in the design of production models will take place within the next 12 months.

NEW VENESTA FACTORY

/-1 A NEW factory at Erith, Kept, has been acquired by Venesta, Ltd., Vintry House, Queen Street Place, London, E.CA, at which production of veneered plywood for decorative use in vehicles, and for other applications, will be concentrated. Plymax metal-faced plywood and Vendura veneered aluminium will be made there.

The company now has three factories in operation in this country.

ADVICE ON ACQUISITIONS

AREA committees for hauliers whose undertakings are to be acquired by the British Transport Commission have been set up by the National Conference of Road Transport Clearing Houses. The object is to exchange information about acquisitions and to give advice.

Mr. N. E. Bennett. the new chairman of the Conference, hopes that these area committees will form a national committee.

Similar machinery is operated by the Road Haulage Association.

HEAVY FINES AND SUSPENSION IN PETROL CASE

VINES of £265, with £16 16.s. costs, I were imposed last week, at Bradford City Court, on Arthur Crow, Westroyd Aven Lie, Idle, Bradford, a director of Listerhills Private Hire Co„ Bradford, and of George Crow and Sons (Haulage). Ltd., Thornton Road, Bradford, after he had pleaded " guilty " to summonses relating to the illegal use of commercial petrol. He was accused of allowing commercial petrol to be put

into the tank of a private car, of wasting petrol and of accepting coupons.

The Road Fund licences of two private cars were suspended for a year, and Crow was disqualified from driving for a year.

Later the same day, Arthur Crow and his brother, Alfred Crow, trading as Listerhills Private Hire Co., were fined £4 for causing a vehicle to be used as a contract carriage without a public service vehicle licence, and £2 for using a hackney carriage to which a higher rate of duty was chargeable, and ordered to pay £3 3s. costs.

George Crow and Sons (Haulage), Ltd., was also fined £10 for keeping six gallons of petrol without a licence.

LONG SERVICE WITH BARTON

TVVENTY EIGHT employees of I3arton Transport, Ltd., whose periods of service range from 25 to 38 years and total 768 years, were recently entertained by the company. Mr. T. A. Barton, chairman, recalled that the company's first experience with' motor vehicles was in 1898 with a Benz 9 h.p. eight-seater wagonette, which was operated in Mablethorpe.

RAIL ATTEMPT TO GAIN HOLD ON FRENCH ROAD TRANSPORT

THE endless struggle between nationalized rail and free road transport in France continues unabated, and the Societe* National des Chemins de Fer Francais (S.N.C.F.) has now issued a list of proposed regulations for 1939. These suggestions for "coordination," which have not yet received Government assent, are being violently opposed by hauliers and passenger transport concerns.

It is proposed that road vehicles running within a radius of 50 miles from their starting points should operate at fixed rates arranged by the Ministry of Transport, of which the S.N.C.F. is a department.

For long-distance road transport, the creation of a central office is proposed, relying, in theory, upon the opinions of existing road haulage associations. This office would control the application of official tariffs, and through it hauliers would receive payment for their activities, regardless of what their own particular operating costs might be.

A "compensation" section of the bureau would (again in theory) look after their interests. 'The S.N.C.F. wishes, moreover, to retain its right to operate unlimited road transport on its own account.

The central office would place French road transport under completely bureau&atic control, although in theory it would remain free. Operating costs would inevitably rise, and the elasticity of road transport in its manifold adaptations would be lost.

REDUCING RISK OF THEFT

RESER VED parking enclosures for lorries carrying valuable loads, for export or import, are suggested in the annual report of the Liverpool Underwriters' Association as a means for reducing the risk of pilferage.


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