BR denies switching freight to road
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• Allegations by the National Union of Railwaymen that a reduction in the number of rail wagons was causing British Rail to turn away substantial freight orders were denied by BRB on Monday.
The NUR report — which has been sent to the group of MPs which it supports — lists stone for Milton Keynes from the West country and for the Durham by-pass, and steel, coal, tinplate, grain and paper pulp among recent consignments which, it says, would have gone by rail had wagons been available. Reports from NUR branches are said to tell of freight being turned away, and the union claims that multi-million-pound orders are being lost to road haulage.
This, said British Rail on Monday, was not true. Occasionally freight could not be accepted at certain times but this was small compared with the total traffic. An offer of 5000 tons of steel coil from Liverpool to Birmingham had been passed up because acceptance would have jeopardized a substantial BSC contract requiring special wagons.