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WHAT THE RAILWAYS ARE DOING
Page 122
Page 123
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GREAT efforts are being made by the railways of this °canary to regain their lost ;oods and passenger traffic. Some dea of the determination which hey are putting into the fight, so 'ar as passenger traffic is conTrued, has been gathered in the )ast few weeks by those who have tudied the proceedings at the mblic sittings of the Area Traffic Jommissioners up and down the .ountry.
It is of the utmost importance that ndependent operators of roadransport vehicles engaged in both he short and the long-distance .lasses of haulage, should know ,xactly what the four big railway oncerns are doing to offer attraclye facilities to those who have ;oods to be carried, what weapons hey are bringing into play, and vhat has actually been done in the )ast 12 months.
Perhaps the most important of he four railway "powers" is the 4reat Western Railway Co., and .eaders will be interested to know hat this company's goods-transport ieet has been augmented in the past rear by 250 vehicles„so that it now lumbers 1,400 up-to-date lorries of leseriptions suitable for all requirenents.
The success which attended the ntroduction of rail-head distribm ion schemes operating from Cardiff tad Swansea, led, in December, 929, to the extension of the idea, imilar facilities being Introduced at 71xeter and Bristol to provide lelivery to villages within a 30-mile .adius from those stations. Satisaction has been obtained with hose two new systems and further
tensions may be expected.
As regards the country lorry ervices both light and heavy nrries are employed and these are llocated according to the particuar traffic and local physical condiions. New services, catering for c52 isolated farms and estates within 15 miles of the various railway stations, have been introduced so that the total number of such services now in operation is 139 and these cover practically the whole of the area served by the G.W.R.
Livestock Conveyance by Road.
Quite recently this company has been conducting experiments in the conveyance of livestock by road, and special vehicles, which are convertible according to the class of traffic, have been constructed.
To give an idea of the progressive attitude of the company the immense amount of transport work which it will undertake in connection with the Royal Agricultural Show to be held in Warwick in July will be performed by mechanical transport. In previous years a large part of the work has been carried out with the aid of horses. This year 30 tractors Will be con
centrated on this one event, not to mention a large number of motor lorries. '
When, at the grouping of 1923, the London and North-EaStern Railway Co. was formed, it owned 198 motor vehicles. To-day the fleet numbers over 800 and in the past 12 months it has been increased by more than 100 vehicles.
For the needs of the manufacturer and wholesaler the company's distribution centres are being extended progressively. There are now 207 of these centres on the L,N.E.R.' lines, compared with 83 at the end of 1928. They are established upon the company's premises and goods arriving in bulk by rail from factories and warehouses are split up in accordance with the consigner's instructions and delivered in separate lots to customers throughout the district.
Another line of development by this company is represented by the concentration schemes which provide' collecti5n dud delivery services Where' previouslY no such fejlities existed, the worJi Ming undertaken entirely by road vehicles. Twelve schemes of this nature have been Introduced in the past year and further developments are expected shortly.
This company, also, has found its country lorry services meet a definite need and they have been extended so that now they cover nearly 1,000 stations throughont the wh,ole system. This is practically twice the number that was thus served three years ago. The average radius of operation from the respective stations is about 10 miles and the traffic dealt with is. of course, mainly "agricultural. the, country lorry services in 1927 handled 28,000 tons of goods and the figure for 1930 is more than three times as A Substitute for the Horse.
The L.N.E.R. Co. is pleased with the experiments that have been carried out with Karrier Cob tractors and expects considerable development in the use of this class of machine for replacing horses. The company has ordered 32 4)f these tractors for use at a new goods station which will be opened shortly at Ashburys, Manchester ; at this depot tne cartaq system will, in due course, be completely mechanized. IncidentAlly, the three other big railviay companies, also, have ordered Karrier Cob mechanical norses.
One of the. most important roadtransport developments ifi connection with the Southern Railway is the fast container service for meat and certain other traffics between Southampton Docks and various nearby towns such as Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Brighton and Salisbury. A fleet of Thornycroft JJtype 6-ton vehicles and Harrow trailers has been concentratkl at Southampton, each motor and trailer conveying two .3-ton corkinsulated containers,
Last year this company made a ,big effort to regain as much as possible of the autumn hop traffic, and., for the first time, instituted inclusive rates for rail and road cartage as between farm and warehouse. Apart from this the company introduced a system of charging for hops by the commercial unit of a "pocket," instead of by the ton as in the past. A pocket weighs about 180 lb. As a
matter of fact the Kent hop Qelds had rather a oad year, but, althOugh the railway carried less hops, the important fact is that it transportM 53 per cent. of the hop traffic, as compared with 33 per cent. in 1929.
This company also introduced in June last the first of a fleet of up-todate motor horse-boxes---agnin entering the road-transport market.
The L.M.S. Railway Co. is plan. ning a comprehensive system of railhead distribution services in both the industrial and tle agricultural districts. The practical working of the system is perhaps best instanced in the transport of such goods as biscuits, fragile articles,
furniture, etc. For example, biscuits are conveyed in full container loads by rail to distribution centres, thereafter being delivered direct to consignee's' premises by motor lorry.
Similarly with furniture, the company is prepared to lift the whole contents of a house, pack them into a container, transport them to any part of the country, and finally install them in their new home.
Catering for Scottish Farmers..
Because this company caters for Scotland it has had to take some steps to help the Scottish farmers.
The radial services in operation are principally applicable in respect of farmers' traffic and are developing rapidly, a feature being that the company employs contractors' vehicles to a considerable extent.
Practically the whole of Aberdeenshire, Forfarshire and Kincardineshire and the counties of Ayr, Wigtown and Dumfries are served by comprehensive radial services. In this way goods are transported between points in the sparsely populated districts.
Similar development is taking place in England, and further extensions of the schemes for radial distribution are under consideration ; it is understood that the company's intention is to develop these services until the whole of the rural and agricultural areas is provided with a network of road services capable of meeting all requirements. It is claimed, in connection with tlae farmers' traffic schemes, that, owing to the rates being based according•to mileage, the benefits to the farm ing comMunity are exceptional.