Rail Service for Road Vehicles
Page 42
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THE German Federal Railways intro
duced a service for the carriage of road vehicles on Monday. IL is intended to relieve traffic on the highway system. Four special trains link Hamburg, Frankfurt and Mutheim, and they will carry only vehicles registered before this month. This is to discourage the acquisition of new vehicles.
Maximum length of vehicles that may be carried is 32 ft. 10 in. and maximum weight 24 tons. The 330-mile journey from Frankfurt to Hamburg is covered in 12 hours, and the Mutheim-Hamburg 240-mile run in nine hours.
If initial trials are successful, the service may be extended. There is agreement about favourable prospects, but road hauliers consider the proposed railway rate of 1.16 Deutschmarks per kilometre for laden iehicles too high. Suggested return rates are 25 Dm. for 250 km. and 35 Dm. for 375 km.
Similar services are run in the U.S.A. and Canada.
BAGHDAD FAIR A SUCCESS
A LTHOUGH practically all the goods rl which were shown at the recent Trade Fair held in Baghdad had been sold, the success of the venture reached far deeper than that. This was the view of Sir Norman Kipping, director-general of the Federation of British Industries, who recently returned from Baghdad.
During the time the Fair was .open, from October 25 to November 8, over 330,000 people visited it. The Commercial Motor was given to understand that those British commercialvehicle makers who supported the Fair were well satisfied with the results. Sir Norman. however, had not been able to obtain figures of sales, or of business likely to materialize.
HOURLY RATE RAISED TO 8s.
offset a deficiency in the working
costs of the central vehicle maintenance unit of Lancashire County Council. the rechargeable hourly rate has been increased from 7s. 4d. to 8s. Expenditure during 1953-54 exceeded income by £4,057, chiefly because the number of hours rechargeable was less than expected.
The unit serves 582 vans and lorries, 177 ambulances and 323 other vehicles. It is short of 18 skilled tradesmen on an authorized establishment of 84.
It has been found that the mileage of operational vehicles is cut by employing vans to service them at their depots.
S.M.T. SUBSIDIARIES SOLD
T"hire-purchase subsidiaries of the Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd.—Scottish Midland Guarantee Trust and Second Scottish Midland Guarantee Trust—have been bought by the Commercial Bank of Scotland. The price is stated to be about £1.75m.
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