N.I. Must Have Road-rail Unity
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ONLY amalgamation of road and rail services in Northern Ireland will solve the transport problem, declared Major F. A. Pope, chairman of the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board and transport adviser to the Government, at a meeting of Belfast Rotary Club. After amalgamation there would be greater efficiency, he said.
The existing network of railways in Northern Ireland was more than ample for the requirements of the territory. The province must have an efficient and economic form of transport if it was to hold its place in the world, dependent as it was upon external markets. The recent war had saved transport in Northern Ireland from a state of chaos.
In 1939 the Road Board and the railways were in serious difficulties. Since then the Government had issued its White Paper, which stated that only amalgamation would solve the problem. Some of the public services under .amalgamation were bound to be unremunerative, but efficiency would be greater by reason of single managerial control, co-ordination of workshops, improvements in services by eliminating duplication, and the use of expert knowledge now confined to particular transport organizations.
• Certain stretches of railways were bound to be closed, unless they were subsidized and kept open for strategic or political reasons. Considerable research was going on with regard to the design of vehicles for express road services and the amenities to be provided in them.