Beeching's Final Bid on Liners?
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
nR. BEECHING is ready to make new
concessions to the National Union of Railwaymen in a final bid to get his liner-train scheme off the ground before he relinquishes the chairmanship of the British Railways Board in the middle of the year. He looks on the E100m. scheme as the outstanding example of the positive side of his reshaping plan for the railways, in contrast with the negative side of rail and station closures.
A member of the Board, Mr. Alex Dunbar, was due to meet the union again on Tuesday to resume the negotiations on access by private road hauliers to the liner-train terminals—the point on which all previous talks have foundered. But the meeting was called off at union request because a sub-committee of the N.U.R. executive is still studying the question and has not yet reported to the full executive.
That, at least, was the explanation offered to the Railways Board. It could be that the union wants to demonstrate that it is not as anxious as Dr. Beeching to have the position resolved. Tactically, such an attitude could put them in a stronger bargaining position. There is no doubt of the Board's keenness to go ahead. Two trains of permanently coupled wagons are now ready to start a service whenever required and containers are being built in the railways' Glasgow workshops.
If all goes well the first liner-train service will start between London and Manchester in June, to be followed quickly by four others—between London and Glasgow and London and Liverpool, and between Liverpool and Glasgow and Manchester and Glasgow. These five initial services will .cost the railways some £fim. in new terminals, handling equipment and rolling stock, of which some 000,000 has already been spent.
First Meeting on Industrial Training IT is understood that an exploratory
meeting between representatives of the Ministry of Labour and of the Road Haulage Association and other operator organizations will be held next Thursday. This will be one of a series of meetings on the setting up of Industrial Training Boards for transport, as forecast in The Commercial Motor on January 8.