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Monstrous proposals
Page 35
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ADELIBERATE, shattering attack on road transport, insupportable by true economic or rational tests, and bound inevitably to distort Britain's inland transport system to the detriment of the national economy. That is our picture of the White Paper "The Transport of Freight" published yesterday.
Now the gloves must really come off. Now the industry must really start to fight for its life.
Why has Mrs. Castle made the astonishing proposals detailed overleaf? The answer is hers: "to make the maximum economic use of our railways . . . by promoting the transfer of all suitable traffic from congested roads on to the railways." Note the clever assumption that all roads are congested, designed no doubt to evoke public support. It is not the trunk roads which, in general, are congested but the urban roads on to which the railways will debouch their captured traffic from terminal depots.
But to accomplish such a road-to-rail switch in the face of both economic facts and the conscious preference of intelligent, cost-conscious customers is not easy. The ground has to be prepared very carefully. Like this:—
First, lull suspicion by announcing that the State transport system will compete fairly, and not be given unfair advantages. Then make partial announcements which, by appearing to give as much as they take, blunt the opposition's criticisms. Next move: announce means of transferring traffic which appear to give the railways, even with certain built-in advantages, a fairly onerous task in establishing that they can compete on time, service and cost. Then— the keystone—slap an enormous tax on road transport that will ensure that road rates rise enough to make the railways competitive.
Ali! But what of the reaction of the road transport unions to such an apparent threat to their members' livelihood? Throw them a new sop: the right to object to licensing applications and the assurance of "associating them more closely with managements at all levels".
Just for good measure, permit the LAs to revoke haulage licences if the railways object during their currency; and—most monstrous of all, remove from the NFC/BR objector the onus of disproving an applicant's case. Where there is no conclusive case before the LA, he must uphold the railways. So much for British justice.
We can only hope that a government of any hue which is blind and bigoted enough to introduce such proposals will have been removed before its plans have been fully implemented.