BR freight loss needs 'miracle'
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THE impossibility of British Rail making its commercial freight services—now losing £70m a year—viable within two or three years was emphasised by BR chairman Sir Richard Marsh on Monday.
Presenting a paper to the Chartered Institute of Transport in London, he said that the current Government brief for the railways involved several "management miracles"—mak ing the freight side viable in 1978, holding the passenger service grant at present levels for the next few years, and avoiding rail cuts that would involve unemployment.
It was impossible to do this, said Sir Richard, and the current annual support grant of £400m could not be reduced substantially without the quality of service declining still further, and permanently. Capital allocation for modernisation was now 35 per cent less than formerly proposed by the Government, and the result of sudden changes in official policies in 1974 was that BR had been reduced to fighting to survive rather than planning for the future.
He criticised the separation of freight and passenger services, for grant support purposes, because they used a common track, signalling and so on.
On the growth side, Sir Richard revealed that 50 private sidings had been opened last year, and that BR was now running 4,000 company freight trains a week, compared with 600 a decade ago. They included 1,200 for the oil industry, 650 for the road and building construction industries and 200 for the motor industry.