60 YEARS' COMPETITION Between Railway, and Road Motor
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DT:RING the past few weeks we have been able • to give our readers some impression of the plans • of two of Britain's great railway companies in respect of road transport, and some facts and figures relating to• the existing resources of the companies in this phase of their activity.
In our issue dated August 20th, we reported an interview which we had with Mr. J. H. Follows, , vice-president of the London Midland and Scottisfi Railway. Co., when he.explained to us in no uncertain terms what his company intended to do and the policy which it would follow as regards the needs of the public and existing road-transport enterprise. Again, in our issue for August 27th, an article occupying tile centre pages explained in some detail the use of commereial motors which the Great Western Railway Co. is making and the increase which has taken place in the past few years in the mileage covered by this company's road-transport fleets of both passenger coaches and goods motors.
We are now in a position to give our readers some information on the road services of a third important railway organization, namely, the London and North Eastern Railway Co.
A Rivalry of Very Early Origin.
In considering the fascinating question of the competition between the permanent way and the highway, which has come so vividly before the public's notice since the close of the war, it is well for us fully to realize that the rivalry is one of very early origin. So long ago as 1865, for example, bus
• competition for the passenger traffic between Sunder; land and South Shields caused the North Eastern Railway Co. to relay a branch track, which had been closed for 25 years, so as to obtain a more direct route between the two towns.
Five years later, in 1870, the same company ran a twice-daily bus service between Helmsley and Gilling in .Yorkshire. This was before the railway line to Helmsley was constructed. These two instances go to show that the constituent companies
of the London and North Eastern Railway have had to face the question of competition from the roads for over 60 years.
The company's engineers have, through this long period, watched the mechanical improvement of the internalcombustion engine, and,
so soon as it established itself as a practical and commercial proposition, motorbuses equipped with petrol engines were put into service. As an instance, the BallaterBraemar service was one of the first bus services in Britain to be maintained by a petrol-driven conveyance.
To-day the London and North Eastern Railway Co. operates numeroustassenger services by road, mainly in the north and notably in the Durham district. The company's own fleet of motor coaches is a comparatively small one, and this statement brings us to the question of the company's policy in the matter of dealing with passenger traffic on the roads.
As a journal published in the interests of the commercial-motor industry and of the public at large, it is with some measure of relief that we are able to state that the policy of this company, with• regard to the innumerable long and short-distance services of priVate and public companies which have proved such serious rivals during the past few• years, is to co-operate with existing concerns rather than to compete with them.
Only a few weeks ago we announced that the London and North Eastern Railway Co., in conjunction with the London Midland and Scottish Railway Co., had come to an agreement with a large group of 36 road-transport concerns, most of these being undertakings in which the Tilling and Britilh Automobile Traction Co., Ltd., has a large financial interest.
Further, the company has acquired control of United Automobile Services, Ltd., that bus undertaking which for so long has been carrying passengers by road• in the section of England which is !served by the London and North Eastern Railway Co.'s
trains.
Co-ordination Efforts, Present and Future.
Even more recently, we announced the formation of a new company in Scotland which, in effect, amounts to an amalgamation of the interests of Scottish Motor Traction, Ltd., with those of the London Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern Railway Companies.
It will be seen from the above that without actually operating a large fleet of its own the London and North Eastern Railway Co. is rapidly securing a tremendous influence in the road-passenger movement. The company has many negotiations pending. Turning to the conveyance of goods and parcels by motor, it is interesting to note that duringthe past five years the number of motor goods vehicles owned by the company has increased four-fold, and in the same period the number of horses in the company's stables has been reduced by more than 1,000.
Development of the Goods Services.
The administration of the company's services by road is divided into three great areas, the Scottish, the North of England .and the Southern. In 1927 the company had about 330 goods vehicles, in 1928 the number was increased to 500, and at present there are about 620 such vehicles in service. The fleet includes Morris-Commercial 30-cwt. vans, A.E.C., Albion and Thornyeroft lorries of different sizes, and International tractors which operate with 10-ton and 15-ton trailers. The use of tractors has speeded up the transport of very heavy, loads.
The bodies for these vehicles are constructed mostly in the company's works at Stratford and Doncaster and include, besides the ordinary open and covered vans, gantry bodies for the conveyance of girders and long timbers, and demountable bodies for use in connection with parcels traffic; in addition, there are bodies of special design. The use of demountable bodies of the platform type, which are loaded up at the loading banks and rolled on to lorries without more than three minutes' delay, greatly exPedites handling at the distribution centres.
From the trader's point of view perhaps the most irnportant use to which the railway motor vans are at present put is in connection with the railhead concentration schemes which are operated by the company at Wigan, West Leigh, Bedford, St. Helens, Manchester, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bradford, Sheffield, Doncaster, Shirebrook, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester, Stamford, Watford, New Barnet, and Ely, and which may be introduced at other places in the near future.
Benefits of the New Methods.
Under the old conditions, by reason of the limited area which could be covered by the horSed vehicles, it was necessary to send consignments destined for the outskirts of a large town to the nearest local railway station, arranging for them to be delivered thence to the consignee by cartage agents. Under the new procedure the consignments are sent to the central station in the town concerned and from there are conveyed by road direct to the consignee, thus avoiding the delay occasioned, by the extra handling at the main station.
Another extremely important development is that of door-to-door delivery by motor, in which the railway as such is not utilized. The development has taken place since the company was accorded additional road powers by Act of Parliament in 1928. Consignments of goods and parcels are now conveyed by road motor between neighbouring towns, such as Leeds and Bradford.
The maintenance of the vehicles is
undertaken in a methodical manner. Shops at which light repairs can be carried out have been S. established in many of the large towns on the L.N.E.R. system, such as Bradford, Doncaster, Sheffield, Liverpool, Nottingham, Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich.
To cope with the increasing volume of mechanical work -rendered necessary by the growth of the fleet, an tip-todate central repair works has recently been opened at Holloway in North London. At this depot and at Ardwick all heavy repairs and overhauls will be carried put.
The new repair depot at Holloway occupies the building previously in use as the company's electric light station. The main shop, which has a floor space of 180 ft. by 70 ft., with ample room for expansion, has two overhead cranes and complete and up-to-date machinery, so that all kinds of repairs connected with motor' vehicles can be undertaken here.
London and suburban vehicles will be maintained at Holloway, and it is in tended to overhaul there, on the unit basis, other vehicles for the southern area. Units will be despatched to the district depots as and when required, and by this means the time of vehicles out of service will be reduced to a minimum.
Excellent offices are provided at Holloway, where accurate records are kept of costs, mileage, etc. A system of wheel numbering has been introduced and the performances of various makes of both solid and pneumatic tyre are being recorded and closely watched. Incidentally all new vehicles of under 2-1ons capacity are now being equipped with pneumatic tyres.
A central stores is being! established which, it is anticipated, will result in both economy and effiCiency. Oil and petrol supplies , and consumption, are closely watched ; bulk storage for petrol is being installed at all depots where the consumption warrants the expenditure. A general reorganization is being made to cater for the increasing fleet. The goods vehicles of the company cover an average distance of 57,000 miles per week, this amounting to approximately 100 miles per van, so that in the course of a year the fleet travels some 3,000,000 vehiclemiles. The tonnage conveyed during 1928 was 830,000, this being nearly double the quantity carried in the year 1924.
It will be seen that in every possible way this great railway company is making full use of its powers to operate commercial-motor vehicles upon the highways.