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Guided Missile

18th December 1959
Page 65
Page 65, 18th December 1959 — Guided Missile
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

LET nobody underestimate the effectiveness of the propaganda carried out by the British Transport Commission. The railways may seem to be a constant target for public criticism, but they are able to exert a strong influence where it is most needed, and have the powerto sow ideas in the ground where they are most likely to bar fruit.

A few months ago, in spite of the continuing fall in traffic, the B.T.C. could not have helped being sanguine about their prospects. They had extracted from the Conservative Government, with the approval of the Labour party; two loans that would, when paid in full, amount to ,£1,900m. Quite properly, the B.T.C. did not take an active part in politics, but they could not help bearing in mind that there would be rich pickings for them if the Labour party won the General Election. Their main task was obviously to concentrate on the opposite possibility, and lay their plans for a Conservative victory.

Now is the time to watch carefully how, these plans are taking effect. The first thing to look for is the formation of a society, or perhaps several societies, with the varied but common aim of befriending, supporting and preserving the railways. The title of the body is not important, except that it should not reveal the true purpose. It might in fact be called innocuously the "Road and Rail Association," and it so happens that an association with just that name has recently been launched.

The new body will concern itself only with goods and not with passengers. The reason is at once clear. The primary aim of the association is said to be the encouragement of a "more effective use of the nation's internal freight transport facilities." The travelling public .would at once understand what was meant if they came within the target area. Nobody is going to " encourage " them to. use any other form Of transport than the one they prefer. Goods are inarticulate, and it is safer to push them around. This was the lesson taught by the Transport Act, 1947. Goods transport was nationalized, but the grandiose passenger schemes came to nothing.

Concentration of Comment The association intends to survey the present distribution of traffic between road and rail and "to investigate, the reasons that have brought about the present situation," It would be equally interesting to investigate the reasons for forming the association. Such a body does not spring out of the earth. For a long time the supporters of the railways have criticized the way in which trade and industry exercise their freedom of choice between competing forms of transport. There has been in particular a concentration of comment upon the kindof loads that may be thought to annoy Other road users and thus predispose them to sympathize with the railways.

For example, a letter in The Financial Times a few weeks ago contained the following comment': " Increagingly our roads are being cluttered up by unwieldy and heavy loads that require major operations by road hauliers and police, considerable disturbance and obstruction to traffic, and often damage to walls, hedges and trees that happen to get in the way at awkward corners. Many such loads could be taken either by rail or by coastal steamer, and in the public interest most certainly should be." The writer was Mr. Bernard Btaine, M.P., who is also one of the founder-members of the new association.

As there is nothing specific in the name of the body to identify it with one form of transport rather than another, it might seem reasonable to suggest that the redistribution vf traffic is the aim rather than a one-sided transfer. In the early days of nationalization, it became something of a fashion to draw up lists of the kind of traffic that " ought" to go by, rail and the kind that properly belonged to road operators. The B.T.C. entered the lists with far more zest than anybody else, perhaps because they believed that Transport Man was on the march towards integration and that they would soon be able to make their own list good—or to scrap it if they felt so inclined.

The association may not be well advised to seek to revive the fashion. In the circumstances of 10 years ago, a swapping list was harmless and even meaningless in face of the threat of monopoly, but at least it looked plausible. Any such list today would merely illustrate an unfortunate truth. All the items allocated to road would already be carried by road, but this would not be so with the railway side of the balance.

Inability to Expand The implication of the reference by the new body to "the present situation" is that there is something wrong with it. Who is complaining? C-licence holders own the majority of the goods vehicles on the roads, and must believe that their own "freight transport facilities" are more effective than those provided by the railways. The grievance of hauliers is perhaps their inability to expand as rapidly as they would like. They have the support of the survey by the Ministry of Transport for saying that there is little or no waste in the use of the " facilities " they provide. A few road users are incommoded by the occasional obstruction caused by an indivisible load. Congestion within the towns, serious though it may be at times, can hardly be cured by the use of the railways.

The association goes on to talk about the creation of a "better understanding" by the public and by the users of transport of the "economic and social consequences" of the present use of the country's transport facilities. The 'suggestion is that a change of heart will infallibly divert traffic from road to rail, and further that this change of heart will take place simultaneously among all sections of the community.

This seems highly unlikely. The association assumes that somehow or other its members have a better " understanding " of the transport situation than the users themselves. Some pretty strong persuasion will be needed to make this claim good. The campaign may therefore be directed mainly towards the general public, who know little about the rights and wrongs of the case and are the more willing to be instructed. They know, that the railways are static and that road transport is growing. It may seem logical to them that traffic transferred to rail will be making use of surplus capacity and will obviate the need for more lorries.

If public opinion can be brought to this point, there may follow a growing and apparently spontaneous demand that more use should be made of the railways. Trade and industry, with their experience to guide them, will not bow to the demand voluntarily. There will have to be compulsion, perhaps applied even more rigidly than in the heyday of nationalization. Road operators, whatever their type of licence, must never forget that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.


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