How the liners are doing
Page 30
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0NLY about 30 per cent of the available capacity was used on the London—Manchester liner trains last month.
Giving this figure in the Commons, Mr. John Morris, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, said it came from the Railways Board.
During the same period, he added, the number of loaded containers carried by the daily Freightliner service on the London—Glasgow route represented about 70 per cent of the available capacity.
His colleague. Mr. Stephen Swingler, was not so forthcoming when he was asked about the economics of running liner trains.
Tory transport expert Mr. David Webster (Weston super Mare) wanted him to give the proportion of capacity at which liner trains had to operate in order to cover running costs, and give a return on capital.
"It would not be in the commercial interest of the Railways Board to do so", said Mr. Swingler.
Mr. Anthony Berry (Tory, Southgate) asked for the percentage of capacity utilized for each week for each liner service since they had been operating, and for an estimate of the loss incurred to date.
This time Mr. Swingler's reply was "It would be against the Railways Board's commercial interests to disclose so much detail on individual services".
Mr. Swingler noted that the £3.3m. capital investment so far incurred or committed on the services comprised £1.5m. on wagons and containers, £0.5m. on road vehicles and £1.3m. on terminals and associated equipment.