I a good deal rarer than some people seem to suppose'
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SOMETIMES the footnotes to major events are just as significant as the events themselves. Mr. George Brown, Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, has announced the boundaries of six out of possibly seven planning regions to be created in England. The number is very much below the 20 or more that the local authorities would have preferred. In making his choice Mr. Brown had several considerations in mind, one of the most compelling being the difficulty of finding planners of the right calibre for a greater number of regions.
The problem, particularly relevant to transport, deserves more frequent emphasis. The best use should be made of available manpower at every level of the economy and the scarcity is most acute at the top. It is pointless to advise the Government, as is sometimes done, that they can implement their plans by the appointment of another score or so of Dr. Beechings. It would be more useful to say where these highly qualified administrators are to be found and who is to take over the work which they are at present
doing. ,
To Mr. Ernest Marples, the last Minister of Transport, the credit is due for finding Dr. Beeching and persuading him to tackle the task of investigating the railways. Perhaps nobody else could have done the job equally well. If it is going too far to suggest that Dr. Beeching is unique, at any rate the species is a good deal rarer than some peopLe seem to suppose. In a problem-ridden country such as Britain, where in so many sectors of the economy a drastic overhaul needs to be carried out, the men capable of doing it should be used to the best advantage.
Surely it is wasting a scarce talent to give it the duty of administering or reorganizing the transport industry. In practice the workwould be concerned mainly with road and rail traffic and particularly goods traffic. The latest survey report from the Ministry of Transport shows how little can be achieved or expected within this field. Road transport and rail transport impinge on each other at comparatively few points. That it should ever have been thought necessary to appoint a special body to control this small sector seems more than ever absurd.
The survey accentuates the tendency of different sorts of traffic to divide themselves between the two forms of transport. In 1962, the year covered by the survey, 97 per cent of foodstuffs went by road, as well as nine-tenths of the raw materials for the construction industries and the major proportion of other building materials. Rail traffic consisted almost entirely of the carriage of fuel, crude materials and manufactured industrial materials over long distances. Coal accounted for more than three-fifths of the total railway tonnage.
The pattern shows the inexorable verdict of history. Any attempt to distort it would be not merely a waste of time but a disservice to trade and industry. It is true that there is an important, even if comparatively small, area where the need remains to balance the preservation of the railways against customer preference. It has been the task of the Licensing Authorities to meet this need. In so far as their present powers and procedures are inappropriate the Geddes Report must be relied upon to show what changes are needed. Where road and rail ought to work together both sides have shown themselves willing to take voluntary joint action. Even as it stands the licensing system could be used or adapted to provide the appropriate sanctions. Appointment of an overlord for this purpose would be irrelevant.
Organizing ability of a high order will always be needed in the man in charge of the railways. Dr. Beeching cannot continue in this position if he is expected to cover a wider field. The danger is that he would at many points find himself in conflict with his successor, who is bound to have his own ideas if he is to match up to his own responsibilities. It is not making the best use of two talented men to put them into a situation where they will inevitably quarrel with each other.
Managed Without Them?
Certainly these scarce individuals appear not to be needed in the road transport industry, which has managed very well without them for more than half a century. On the passenger side it is significant that the post-war Labour Government, after taking over several bus companies, allowed them to continue operating much as before. There was no passenger overlord except in London. On the goods transport side British Road Services provide almost a clinical case as well as a warning.
Before denationalization, with all the cards in their favour, B.R.S. were struggling even to make their revenue greater than their ordinary expenditure. This unhappy situation belied the impressive names on the letter heading and the equally impressive ranks of the administrators in the British Transport Commission. If such a thing were possible, it might be said that B.R.S. were foundering beneath the weight of their own overlords.
Over the past decade, stripped of their special advantages and with a fleet less than half its previous size, B.R.S. have been steadily improving their position. The present system may not be ideal, with a number of companies making up a federation which is itself part of a holding company, but in practice it gives B.R.S. the independence they need. The super-administrators whose talents would be wasted in this field are no doubt being put to better use somewhere else in the business world.
Over the whole field of transport there must be planning towards well-defined goals. This ought to be the function of Government. Parliament ought not to relinquish its responsibilities to administrators. The Queen's Speech at the opening of Parliament last month foreshadowed a progressive transport policy and a system of comprehensive regional planning. Another reason, apart from the one have already given, why Mr. Brown decided that larger planning regions were needed than those suggested locally was to provide a field large enough to cope with the various transport problems. All the interests involved should have a say in working towards the solutions.