kil Transport Must be Seen as Complementary'
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EE assertion by Dr. Beeching that no ietailed analysis of road transport I change his assessment of rail irements in the future was described iberdeen on Sunday as " a bit of natic nonsense" by Mr. Ray Gunter, ., Labour's shadow Minister of )ur.
esiding at a meeting organized by -deen's trades council, the city Labour y and the railway trade unions, Mr. ter said Dr. Beeching was quite pet when he said the nation could go on trying to perpetuate things, but ould be a tragedy if, in an attempt volve an efficient and modern transsystem, we became involved in slangmatches between Dr. Beeching and I Stonham; the issues were too great e marred by trivial irrelevancies.
Se great argument against the hirig plan, he said, was that once transport was being seen in its ms segments and not as a whole. The ) and function of road, rail, air, and .7:cl some of the emerging new forms ransport, must be seen as completary one to another. In the simplest s, freight or passenger traffic which d most efficiently and economically arried by rail should go by rail and best carried by road should travel by aw could Dr. Beeching know that a prehensive and ruthless appraisal of economics of road transport would not affect his assessment of rail requirements, asked Mr. Gunter. The Minister of Transport obviously did not know, because, belatedly, he had ordered an urgent review of the road transport licensing system and was awaiting a detailed review of road operations and of the frightening problems of urban congestion. These important reports, expected by the end of the year, must have some bearing upon the future function of the railways and proper methods of contracting the railways could not really be assessed until all the facts concerning modern transport were known.
This nation must expect change in transport as in other industries ", said Mr, Gunter. " We must create a rationalized transport system, but this slipshod, half-baked way of seeing each section in isolation is just silly and Dr. Beeching knows it as well as anybody."
Road Surface Perils THE Road Haulage Association is collecting information from members on the damage caused to vehicles as a result of the practice adopted by some local authorities of relying on passing traffic to consolidate chippings spread on the road on top of sprayed tar.
The Association recommends that all highway authorities should use road rollers.