Post-war Passenger Transport
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A Particularly Interesting Summary of the-, Major Factors to Which Consideration Should be Given by Operators and the Authorities Concerned
LATE last month Mr. Richard J. Howley, chairman of the British Electric Traction Co., Ltd., contributed an interesting article to the " Financial News," which has given us permission to make excerpts.
It concerns the tackling of post-war problems in passenger road transport. The essential thing, said Mr. Howley, will be to apportion the movement of goods and passengers between the different forms of inland transport, so that competition will be controlled without being destroyed.
So long as the Minister of War Transport and the Commissiohers limit their activities to controlling and regulating the industry, and donot attempt to interfere unduly with the actual operation of services, the present system can be considered satisfactory and will need no change.
Given alert management, the railways, he considers, should have a better future financially. There is another side—that of road transport—to the controversy on the cost of maintaining the permanent way with which the railway companies are saddled ; but no form of transport should be called upon for special contributions to national taxation.
The war has thrown great burdens oit the British bus industry, but no form of inland transport has operated with greater smoothness and efficiency under war conditions. In addition to the almost complete absence of new vehicles for five years and the difficulty of obtaining spare parts for maintenance—in some cases of very old buses—there have been shortages of fuel, rubber and labour.
Bus Miles Run Much Lower, • But Traffic Greatly Increases
These troubles caused a drastic cut in services, an the public has had to put up with severe overcrowding at times. Comparing the working returns of a number of large bus companies for 199 and 1943, there was a decrease of 15 per cent, in miles operated in the latter year,, and an increase of 3:5 per cent. in passengers carried. With individual companies, some of the figures are even more remarkable, showing, in one instance, a 30 per cent. decrease in mileage and a 35 per cent. increase in passengers; in another, 15 per cent. fewer miles run and 85 per cent. more passengers carried.
These figures have not meant any financial advantages to the companies, owing to the incidence of E.P.T. On the contrary, the heavy loading has proved a serious disadvantage, owing to exceptional wear and tear on vehicles The industry has, however, proved to have an inherent flexibility and adaptability to meet any call at the shortest notice.. The achievement was helped, too, by, the forethought of those responsible in building up an. organization capable of making smoothly the changeoyer to war-time conditions. Wisely, many vehicles withdrawn from service between 1938 and 1939 and replaced by new ones were retained in reserve, in case the worst came to the worst.. Although they were old, these vehicles have .played an inestimable part in maintaining the country's bus services.
One of the severest blows to the public was the withdrawal of the long-distance coach services to save petrol and oil fuel. These have not been reinstated, but fre
quent inquiries show how greatly they have been missed. The main problems of the war have been largely overcome, and plans must be made for the earliest possible return of those comfortable travel facilities which played such an important part in the life of the Nation in prewar days.
The apportionment of goods and passengers should reflect in the widest possible spirit the needs of the community, as it is important that the public's choice in the form of transport it wishes to use should be preserved. The advantages of road transport are many, and to deny the public its right to use it would be a retrograde step. The war has ghown what can be done, and has been done well, by road vehicles possessing a flexibility of movement and the power of multiple ccncentration unheard of previously.
Yearly the public's demand for road-transport facilities has grown. They will continue to be a great factor in the lives of those who live in the country. The bus generally goesnearer to their homes, and operators have shown that they know how to meet the wants of the passengers they carry. -Any outside interference would be resented quickly and strenuously.
Modern Armies Owe Much to Road Transport Efficiency
Mr. Howley, in reflecting on the part road transport has played on the battlefields; pointed out that Modern armies are entirely dependent on modern transport. Soldiers at the front must be kept supplied gnd rein
forced. In the front line this is primarily a roadtransport war, and there can be no doubt that the efficient way in which it has been developed in times of peace must have contributed greatly to the speedy creation of the organization which goes to make front„line transport.
A good deal, he mentioned, has been said and written about the cost of maintaining the railways' permanent way. This, at first sight, seems to be a handicap which road transport has not to provide for directly. On the other hand, it was recently claimed that the conveyance of goods per ton-mile between London and Biriningham (excluding terminals and assuming a 50 per cent. payload) is estimated to be, for the railways 0.32d., and for road transport 1.52d. Thus ownership of and the sole right to use the railways' permanent way have, without doubt, a big influence on the comparative cost per tonmile of conveyance.
Any special tax on transport should be applied solely for maintenance and improvement, as it is a, direct tax on production. Some processes require materials to be moved two or three times in course of manufacture, • and taxation on transport must increase export prices.
As to the future, the system of free enterprise, benevolently supervised by the Government in the public interest, has proved itself under the hardest of all con-
ditions—those of total war. Government control of industry, exercised with proper discretion and moderation, can be the watch dog of democracy: but if the, 'c Government, or somebody acting under its auspices, were to oWn or operate an industry, 'who would then be the watch dog? That is the problem which nationalization or socialization cannot solve, any more than Fascism or National Socialism has been able to do on the Continent.