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THE INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORT CONGRESS.
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Interesting Papers Upon the History of Transport by Road and Rail, and of the Need for Avoidance of all Handicaps to Free Development.
pROY3ABLY no other meeting or function throughout the year creates more interest than the Institute of Transport.Congress. The function is held annually, the social side, as well as the business side, being a matter that is carefully considered by the officials of the Institute. •
The Congress this year was held in the Birmingham Centre on May 18th to 21st, when some very interesting papers were read by eminent people in the transport world. Facilities were also given for members and visitors attending the congress to make visits to such interesting places as the works of Cadbury Brothers, Ltd., at Bournville, Guy Motors, Ltd., Wolverhampton, and the Curzon Street goods station of the L.M.S. Railway, whilst, for the ladies, arrangements were made for a visit to the showrooms of Messrs. Elkington and Co., the goldsmiths and silversmiths in Newhall Street, Birmingham, and to the 'showrooms of the General 'Electric Co., Ltd., at Witton.
For all the events free transport was arranged for participants in the Congress on the Birmingham tramcars and omnibuses, the Birmingham and Midland motor omnibuses, the Birmingham and District Power and Traction Company's buses, the Dudley and Stour, port Electric Traction Company's vehicles, the South Staffordshire Tramways, the Wolverhampton District Electric Tramways and the Wolverhampton Corporation tramcars and omnibuses, these facilities being granted to the ladies so that they could visit local places of interest during the time that the meetings (in which, of course, they were not interested) were taking place.
The Civic Welcome to the Institute.
The proceedings were opened by a reception held on Wednesday, May 18th, at 7 o'clock in the Warwick and .Dudley rooms of the Queen's Hotel, the members, visitors and their ladies being received by the President, R. ,II. Selble, Esq., C.B.E. On the following morning at 9.45 a.m. the congress was opened by the President, and the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor of Birmingham extended a civic welcome to all present. This was followed shortly afterwards by a paper on "Traffic Control," read by Mr. J. H. Follows. C.B.E., M.17.0„ a former member of the Council of the Institute and a vice-president of the•London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
During the course of this paper, Mr. Follows drew attention to the vital importance of efficient transport. because it affects the nation both commercially and c44 domestically. Mr. Follows held the opinion that when a railway has once been made there is no road to compare with it. The life of a steel rail on a main line averages about 20 years, and roadways could not stand a tithe of the traffic taken over the railway; thus, he argues, railways must continue to be relied upon as the country's main means of transportation: • The author was very strongly of the opinion that the system of traffic control provides the best means for obtaining the desired results in efficiency. It commenced on some of the British railways so long as 20 years ago, and the system was gradually extended until, even before the grouping, it was in operation in some form or other on most of the principal railway companies in the country.
Criticism has been made that the large railway companies, now that the amalgamation has taken place, are proving unwieldy. The author stated that they may certainly; become unwieldy if they are allowed to do so, but the very essence of the traffic control system, with its centralization of principles and localization of details, makes the question of mere size rather a secondary matter. Organization is more important. With a railway divided into district controls of manageable size, under the supervision of divisional controls, again of Manageable proportions, the work that comes through to be dealt with at headquarters is likewise of manageable proportions.
• The author then went on to explain the systems working in express passenger trains, stopping passenger trains, express freight trains and through mineral and empty wagon trains, stopping freight trains and local trip services to meet the requirements of-collieries and works. He touched on the locomotive running shed organization and the types of vehicle and. appliances in use.
Industry's Dependence Upon Transport.
The first part of Mr. George Cadbury's paper on "Industry and Transport" consisted of reminiscences of the district. The proBlem of transportin Birmingham-has always been °riga most peculiar importance, owing to the Inland position of the city. In one of the author's quotations, Birmingham is stated, in 1794, to have been the centre of the mechanical industry of England: The disadvantages of carrying on such a Manufacture in Birmingham., with other towns, in the Midlands, must have been very serious, since none of the great highways pass through the toWn ; still more so when coal took the place of wood
for smelting iron. Nevertheless, before the era of canals and railways, Birmingham had attained a place of eininenCe in the industrial world, and it would, therefore, seem that there must have been some powerful factors in its expansion which were able to overcome the grave inconvenience of bad communications.
Mr. Cadbury then turned to modern conditions and said that the manufacturers in the Midlands were peculiarly dependent upon efficient transport, for three main reasons—(1) raw materials must be obtained cheaply for the industries; (2) the finished goods must be distributed to the coast and to other countries in competition with other manufacturers more favourably placed ; and (3) the workers must not be unduly handicapped in the cost of living through the additional cost of obtaining the necessities of life by expensive carriage, a handicap which would ultimately enhance the cost of production. Mr. Cadipiry touched on the subject of a newly developed train ferry service to the Continent where the train ferry actually forms a floating bridge.
Shrapnell-Smith's Raper.
On Friday morning Mr. E. S. Shrapnell-Smith, C.B.E., and Mr. W. P. Robinson read a paper on "Highway Costs per Ton-mile of Traffic." Consequent upon the general trend of the working population to be "motored to work," as it were, the highways of the country, no matter how rural they ate, demand proper reconstruction, as they must be kept up efficiently. Whilst costs of materials and labour have advanced by nearly 100 per cent. since 1913, and whilst 2,100 miles of new highways have been taken over by local authorities, it is the health and habit of the community that have called for the extension of opportunities for internal communication.
Costs were gone into very thoroughly by the authors, a table of annual highway costs, inclusive of maintenance and improvements and cleansing of roads and bridges for England, Scotland and Wales being set out. Tn 1910-1911 the total expenditure was about 154 millions, whereas in 1923-1924 the cost had risen to over 41 millions. This for England and Wales.
Owing to the fact that practically all highways vary in width throughout portions of their length, a cost per mile for maintenance is misleading for purposes of comparison. The authors took a practical example in the London-Portsmouth road from the comity boundary of Beverley Bridge to the county boundary of Southampton at Greyshot, Throughout this length of 34.0 miles the road passes through the areas of three boroughs, four urban and two rural councils, which, of course, are under different authorities. Assuming that these authorities have recorded accurate information as to widths and costs for each section, the difficulty of reducing these into terms of Cost per ton of traffic is very great. The authors arrived at some very concise conclusions, and an interesting discussion followed.
The last paper of the series, delivered by Mr. C. Grant Robertson, M.A., LL.D.; C.V.O. (Principal of the University of Birmingham), was read at the morning session on May 20th, the subject being "Transport in England—A Brief Historical Survey." In the author's own words, the paper was really "a prefatory note, attempting to set the problems in a wider and historical context, and to indicate the connection between the problems of transport to-day and the problems and results of the past."
Mr. Itobertson started his raurne by stating that an adequate history, of the transport in England from Celtic and Roman days to the present time had not been written, but he thought that engineers would learn as much from it for their professional specialities as the humbler layman who is interested in the results rather than the processes and technique of transport.
The purposes of the two main functions of transport —the conveyance of material things and the conveyance of living organisms—may be military, social, economic, political or merely for recreation, or for all of them together. The author then went on to consider the social significance between the conveyance, of a lion from Africa to the Zoo, or of a racehorse from Newmarket or Paris to Epsom. A table of statistics compiled from British history was used to illustrate several of the author's points dating back to the Tudor period when the rate of speed was estimated as varying between 12 miles and 15 miles per day, according to whether the roads were bad or good. This rate of speed and the rate of cost, .according to route, were points brought out in a very interesting ,talk.