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letters
Page 64
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We welcome letters for publication on transport topics. Address them to Commercial Motor, 40 Bowling Green Lane, London, EC1.
New approach
I was interested to see the letter from Mr Watkinson (CM April 17) on the subject of "Railways into roads". It is by now clear that our traditional methods of providing new road capacity cannot keep pace with demand. This is particularly true in built-up areas, where the disruption caused to people's lives, the complex procedures for acquiring property and the difficult structural problems caused by existing installations, make the very high cost of constructing new roads just one of the problems.
If we are to avoid steadily increasing levels of restraint on the use of road vehicles, a new approach is necessary. The 19th century bequeathed to us a very complete network of railways. Rail was then the dominant form of transport, but this is no longer true. The great majority of both passenger and goods journeys are now made by road only.
The result of our policy of preserving railway land in its existing use is that loadings on almost all railway routes are far below what could be accommodated if the routes were converted into roads. In this country there is a lack of knowledge of the capacity of highgrade roads to move freight and passengers, perhaps because we have so few such roads. For example, the car equivalent of a bus or coach on a high-grade road is not 3.0 as is commonly supposed but 1.6.* The average two-track railway line can be converted with very little work into an excellent grade-separated limited access 24ft two-way road, with very easy gradients and good sightlines. Such a road would have a two-way capacity of 1500 cars per hour at a high level of service. This is equivalent to 470 buses per hour in each direction, at 45 seats per bus a one-way capacity of over 20,000 passengers per hour. Only on one short length of BR's networks do loadings on a single track exceed this. On the average BR two-track trunk route peak hour loadings will be only about one-tenth of this figure. Most freight movement takes place out of passenger peak hours, but again seldom uses more than a tenth of potential capacity. There is, therefore, enormous reserve capacity in the system if converted into a road network.
A way out of our problems would be the classification of all roads and railway land as transport land. Such land could then be put to its optimum transport use; there is little doubt of what this would be on an impartial economic assessment.
ANGUS DALGLEISH, Chertsey, Surrey. [*Reference,' Highway Capacity Manual 1965, Chapter 11.1
What's an hgv licence worth?
Many readers will sympathize with the views expressed in the letter from S. Wells (CM April 24) who feels disgruntled because his employment as a warehouse supervisor in the year's qualifying period ended February 1 1970 precludes his applying for an hgv licence. No regulations can be drawn up that do not bear harshly on some people.
Some drivers with a lifetime of experience would never have been licensed to drive had hgv licensing, to high standards, applied in the past.
The hgv licence will sort the men from the boys. The interesting question is: what will its salary value be worth in the future? The more people excluded by the test, the more valuable to employers will be the qualified drivers. So it is in the financial interests of professional drivers for hgv standards to be kept at a high level and for pass rates to be low! N. COO PE, Portsmouth.