Greater Hostility to Liners
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HOPES of early agreement on the vexed
question of allowing private road hauliers access to the proposed liner-train terminals received a severe setback last weekend with the publication of the Prices and Incomes Board's report on railwaymen's pay. Its blunt rejection that the majority of railway workers are entitled to any more money than they reluctantly accepted at the end of last year has incensed union leaders, writes our Industrial Correspondent.
In their present mood any hope that the 24-man executive or the National Union of Railwaymen might reverse its former opposition to road hauliers is clearly doomed to failure. The executive's whole way of thinking as a result of the uncompromising rejection of their case is towards greater hostility to any management proposals.
However, the issue is bound to be placed before the executive as a result of the Board's report. And the person most likely to put it to them is the new Minister of Transport, Mrs. Barbara Castle. She is certain to impress on the union the importance of coming to terms with liner trains. The Board's report says plainly that the main test of the railwaymen's good intentions on productivity will be their reaction to the linertrain project.
Says the report: "A great deal of capital has been invested in this scheme and it is vital to the railways' linances and the future well-being of the industry and its workers that its operation should not be held up any further.
"Continued opposition. or attempts to limit these proposals would be considered by the public as indicative of an attitude of mind prejudicial to any serious efforts to improve railway efficiency and competitive strength."
The executive is, however, likely to concentrate first on what it considers the most important issue —the bread-and-butter question of higher pay. And if it is forced to consider liner trains, the vote against admitting private hauliers is now likely to be substantially higher than the 13 to Ii recorded last time.
Although the British Railways Board and its chairman. Mr. Stanley Raymond, welcomed whole-heartedly the report, they must at the same time regret that it did nothing to ease their job in getting full commercial operation for the liner trains. With trains running nightly with uneconomic loads between London and Glasgow, the liners are so far only adding to the railways' huge deficit.