R.H.A. Chairman Calls for Road Rail Inquiry
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AN impartial public inquiry outside the field of politics should examine the functions of both road and rail on the basis of fair competition and having in mind the inevitable growth of road transport and the equally inevitable contraction of the railways.
This proposal was made by Mr. R. N. Ingram, national chairman of the Road Haulage Association, at the annual dinner of the Association's North Western (Eastern) Area at Blackpool, last Saturday.
"It. is the earnest desire of the road haulage industry that the railways should be made to pay their way and operate on a commercial basis," he said. The economic difficulties of the railways can be no source of satisfaction to hauliers.
"For example, the poverty of the railways• is sometimes put forward as an excuse for failing to relieve road transport of the monstrous burden of taxation at present imposed upon it. The taxation upon road users is currently running at the fantastic sum of £500m. per annum in fuel tax, Road Fund duty and purchase tax on vehicles.
"Even when the roads programme envisaged by the present Minister of Transport., and already started upon, is in full swing, and even though it is far greater than anything this country has ever before seen, the expenditure on roads will still be a very small fraction of the taxation derived from the purchase and operation of road vehicles.
"As against this, the railways are being very heavily subsidized by the taxpayer by the provision, first, of enormous sums for modernization and further additional amounts to meet the constantly growing deficits. As an ordinary taxpayer the haulier makes his contribution to the subsidies given to his competitor, whilst he himself is burdened with the special taxation to which I have referred. He has
to pay his way and, if he fails to do so, he has no fairy godmother to whom to appeal; he will go to the wall.
"We have had reports from members of drastic reductions in rail rates for goods traffic, sometimes by as much as 30 per cent. Given competition on equal terms the road haulage industry can have no possible complaint, but it is very concerned indeed if such a policy is to be pursued against a background of mounting deficits and subsidy by the taxpayer."
Mr. Ingram then called for a public inquiry.
In a desperate attempt to justify the renationalization of long-distance road haulage, the Socialists were maintaining that when the Conservatives restored competition in the industry, they disposed of the profitable part of the British Transport Commission's undertaking and that this was the cause of the present difficulties which British Railways were having to face.
"It is, of course, patently absurd to suggest that the operations of the 20,000 long-distance vehicles sold back to free enterprise could, if they were again absorbed by the State, result in any marked improvement in an organization the losses of which are this year running at a rate of £85m. per annum," he commented.,