Pyrrhic victory for coal hauliers
Page 67
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
HAULIERS cannot afford to be smug over the railways' loss of the mineral traffic for which they are peculiarly suited and on which they rely for much of their revenue. More coal and iron ore are now travelling by road than by rail and Bob Reid, chairman of British Rail, believes that some of the traffic will be lost for ever.
Action by railwaymen in support of the miners, combined with the miners' own actions, has been costing the railways am a week. British Rail is, however, more or less bullet-proof, and hauliers, along with other citizens, will have to dig into their pockets to make up their rival's losses. The extra mineral traffic that has been thrust on them could be a mixed blessing.
There was delicate irony in the choice by Clive Jenkins, secretary of the ASTMS, of a gift for Ray Buckton, general secretary of ASLEF, on his retirement as president of the TUC. It was a railway signaliser, invented in about 1857 by W. G. Shaw, to warn of danger on the line.