Eyeless in Gaza
Page 64
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ONE way and another, no industry seems to get as much attention as transport, in spite of which, or perhaps because of which, no industry is more consistently sorry for itself. The actions or proposals of the politicians only make things worse, so that there is now
no section of transport without a problem, either present or anticipated. All are either insolvent or uneasy, whether they be airlines, shipping companies, hauliers, C-licence holders, bus operators, car owners, or (of course) the railways.
At first glance, it may seem that the railways are at a double disadvantage, because they are the chief target for public attack. Some idea of what it feels like to be at the receiving end of a barrage of criticism is given, although indirectly, by Mr. Norman Hamilton, publication relations adviser, Eastern Region, in a contribution to British Transport Review.
As he is writing mainly for railwaymen, Mr. Hamilton skilfully avoids saying in so many words that they have been made slipshod, inefficient and unenterprising by attacks from Parliament, the Press and the public. There is little doubt, however, that this is what he means. He compares the constant denigration of the railways with the brain-washing carried out by the Communists during the war in Korea, and concludes: "Little or nothing that is worthwhile can be wrung from men and women who see themselves as the Cinderellas of industry, tied to an organization that is a public liability."
If only the public could be made aware of the truth, Mr. Hamilton suggests, they would think differently about the railways. The truth, as he sees it, is not after all very convincing. The public ought to be told, he says, that the railways were neglected before and during the war; in fact, the public also know that a good deal of money has been spent on bringing the railways up-to-date. There are over 270m. tons of goods carried by rail every year, says Mr. Hamilton, and over 1,000m. passengers, more than twice the number travelling by class 1 railways in the U.S.A. To some people, these figures make it all the stranger that the railways contrive to have such enormous annual deficits. The reason may be, as Mr. Hamilton claims, that rates and fares have not risen as much as most free-enterprise prices; on the other hand, they have probably risen more than free-enterprise rates and fares, which still show a profit.
Shorn Samson
It would be hard to withhold sympathy from Mr. Hamilton and from the people for whom he is writing, just as one would sympathize with the shorn Samson, who once carried all before him, and at the end, eyeless in Gaza, could not see that his hour had passed. Believing it to be an encouragement to British railwaymen, Mr. Hamilton notes that "hardly any of the world's railway systems pay their way." He misses the obvious conclusion that the decline of the railways is inevitable. The public criticism that he would like to rebut, although admittedly unfair at times, reflects the general opinion that the railways are on the way out. Regrettably or not, the general opinion is sound. Even the Government concur with it, to the extent that they are laying plans for streamlining and cutting down the railways.
Mr. Hamilton confuses cause and effect. Because the decline of the industry they serve has naturally enough a30 dejected railwaymen, he appears to imagine that the remedy is purely psychological. Get rid of the dejection, he suggests, and all the troubles of the railways will be over. His prescription, therefore, is a call to action. " In general, the railways should be moving to the attack." He hastens to add that the attack should not be against the public, who are the customers, but against the ill-informed, the prejudiced or the malicious.
Superficially, the British Transport Commission appear to be taking Mr. Hamilton's advice and moving to the attack. It turns out that the attack is against the target that he holds sacred. More and more plainly, as time goes on, the Commission hint that the main cause of their troubles is not even the haulier or the bus and coach operator, but the customer who also happens to run his own car or his own goods vehicles on C licence.
Because there is no internal solution to railway discontent, the Commission are building up the image of the enemy without. Before long they will be trying to foist that image on to the Government, with a real hope of success if the Government happens to be Socialist.
Political Limelight
As a consequence, other forms of transport, although not plagued with financial insecurity, must look to their defences. The malaise of the Commission spreads through the whole industry. Hauliers in particular, who have found no way of escaping the political limelight since the war, are threatened with a further upheaval if there is a change of Government at the next election. If they trace their troubles back, by whatever route, they coMe sooner or later to the railways.
Other industries contrive to keep clear of politics. The Labour Party, in their present mood at least, hasten to repudiate the intention of taking over anything more than steel and road haulage. Hauliers may well envy other industries, and wish that they themselves could shake free of politics and run their own affairs. Better still, they would like, in the once fashionable phrase, to see the whole of transport taken out of politics.
This may be impracticable. It is hard to see how the Commission can either be rescued from their predicament, or put out of their misery, without the intervention of the State. When there was such difficulty in selling the larger units offered for disposal by British Road Services, a takeover bid for British Railways would be highly unlikely.
If there were a way out of the difficulty, no doubt it would have been discovered by now. Instead of subscribing to a publicity fund to fight renationalization, hauliers—aided by the C-licence holders and the bus operators—might be willing to have a whip round in order to put the railways on their feet, if they felt it would do any good. The money would be well spent in putting their rivals back into business on a sound financial basis_ Were this possible, the depression that Mr. Hamilton sense: among railwaymen would disappear, and there would be a consequent lightening of tension.
Unfortunately, nothing short of an enormous annual subsidy would keep the railways out of the red. In terms of the volume of traffic carried, the railways have already yielded pride of place to road transport. They must be prepared to shrink still further, in the hope of reaching the level where outgoings fall below revenue, and the whole transport industry can thereafter develop naturally.