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ROAD-RAIL TRAILER IN USE SOON: BOLD PLANS CALL

11th September 1959
Page 48
Page 48, 11th September 1959 — ROAD-RAIL TRAILER IN USE SOON: BOLD PLANS CALL
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A PROTOTYPE trailer, designed to operate on road and rail, should r-k be in experimental service with British Railways by the end of the year. The prototype was referred to by Mr. G. F. Fiennes, line traffic manager, Northern Region, British Railways, at the annual meeting of the British Association, for the Advancement of Science, in York last week. It will be similar to the road-rail trailers which have been in operation with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, U.S.A. for the past 18 months.

The dual purpose vehicle permits greater efficiency than the type of roadrail working commonly practised in the U.S.A.—where road vehicles are carried " pickaback " on rail trucks. The British trailer is being manufactured by an Oxford concern—long associated with metal work for the motor industry—which has been working in conjunction with British Railways' engineers for the past year. It will be equipped with two interchangeable sets of wheels: solid wheels with flanged rims for rail work and rubber-tyred ones for use on the road. Presumably, both sets will be permanently attached to the trailer chassis and will be raised or lowered for either phase of operation.

"The main streams of traffic would still be on the railways and the roads," said Mr. Fiennes. "As soon as the railways develop their amphibian' the road hauliers' advantage in door-to-door transport, without trans-shipment, disappears." As soon as the railways can do away with shunting, they will be on terms with road transport for virtually all traffics, he said. And they will be on better terms over the longer distances, where their higher speeds will prevail, he added.

Motorway Speeds

Mr. Fiennes doubted whether the network of motorways would increase speeds or reduce costs greatly in face of the larger volume to move and the greater congestion in the towns. Neither air nor water transport was likely to do more than contribute on the fringes of the national effort, he said. Air transport would come in for urgent traffics over long distances, he averred, but added that "canals and rivers are dead ducks."

Sir Reginald Wilson, a member of the British Transport Commission, argued that road-rail transport users should consider the social benefits of transport as well as economics. He made special reference to C licences and commented that the present social urge was away from the cheapest pattern of transport and towards the private car and the C licence.

The case for privately owned C-licensed vehicles rested on economic grounds, he said. There was control of transit throughout and integration with manufacturing processes. Users could maintain contact with customers and there was publicity value from having private vehicles. The fear of strikes in public services was a point also to be taken into consideration, he added.

"Old habits of thought die hard," said Sir Reginald. "Many customers are B14 slow to accept the fact that arrangements between themselves and the railways are these days settled by free negotiation. " If railways were to be continued," he added, "they must be free to compete. Yet they could make little headway against the rise of the C licence because the 'do-it-yourself' might be cheaper," Sir Reginald pointed out that sometimes it only looks cheaper to operate a transport service. A man who bought his own vehicles and kept them 100 per cent, busy, giving only the overflow to public transport, must not be upset if the public transport undertaking put up its prices, he said. In that way he would, on balance, gain nothing.

Bolder planning and a greater expenditure in the matter of transport was called for by the president of the engineering section of the British Association, Sir Ewart Smith. Referring to the "critical importance of transport and communications," he said that the boldness was needed despite some awakening of the country to its transport needs.

He observed that the projected expenditure of £60m. on new roads and major improvements was no more than the 1939 rate, allowing for the fall in the value of money. This was in spite of the growth in the number of vehicles from three to seven millions, which was increasing • annually at the alarming rate of eight per cent.

Sir Ewart commented, "By the end of the year only 64 miles of motorways will be in use, whereas from 1830-1850 new railway routes were being built in Britain at an average rate of 320 miles a year."

There was no established centre for training high-grade traffic engineers, said the president, although the savings gained by traffic engineering were immense. An increase of only five m.p.h. in average speed of traffic would give an economic saving to the committee of at least £180m. a year, he added.


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