Follow the leader
Page 4
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READERS of CM may never have heard of the Group of Nine. This is hardly surprising since it represents the nine national railways of the members of the EEC. It is even less surprising in view of its most recent publication which is aggressively against road transport.
In making its case for rail transport, the Group resorts to out-of-date methods. For example, it shows that in 1 976 (are those the latest statistics they can muster?) there were 1292 fatalities on the road for every one by rail. They do not say how many were attributable to heavy goods vehicles.
This cheap and nasty approach can only alienate the road operators on whom the railways depend for its collection and delivery traffic. The same may be said of the group's comparison of train loadings with private cars and not coaches.
It argues a case for balanced competition in transport but is the organisation really in a position to suggest anything — despite being heavily subsidised it has lost up to £3m a week.
However, any arguments, even if they are as naively put forward as the Group of Nine's, should be countered.
The European road transport associations should mount a joint attack. The IRU will give the lead at its conference in Seville next month, and this should be the launching pad for promoting the importance of road transport to our way of life.
Indeed, in CM next week we will be taking the initiative and looking at what transport means to Europe in general and Britain in particular. We hope the industry as a whole will follow our lead.