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Roman invasion for UK?

25th April 1975, Page 43
25th April 1975
Page 43
Page 44
Page 43, 25th April 1975 — Roman invasion for UK?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by Bill Godwin

The growing association of western Europe's cv industry with the East (see Belgrade Show, CM April 11) is not restricted to one-way traffic. With Ikarus of Hungary already dealing with Germany, Czechoslovakia selling in a number of markets including Germany, Holland and Switzerland, vehicles from Romania are the latest to appear in the West. A light cross-country vehicle, the ARO, is being imported here and last year arrangements were made for a number of ROMAN 134onners, Romanian-built under an MAN licence, to be sold by the Dutch distributor of Saviem and MAN trucks.

This week a report, as yet unconfirmed, says that it is likely that ROMAN type 1214 trucks will soon be introduced on the UK market. It can be assumed that the Eastern import would be handled by MAN Concessionaires GB Ltd as an

extension to the range of original MAN equipment a the lighter end of the scale. The ROMAN type 1214 is a vehicle foi an 8 tonnes payload, built since 1972 in the Brasov plant which also turns out 10, 12 and 17 tonnes payload chassis.

The power unit is a 5.49-litre six-cylinder engine developing 99kW at 3000 rpm and built under licence from MAN. Chassis frames are of riveted construction and like the axles are similar to those used on East German IFA W-50 vehicles. Transmissions are licence-built ZF designs; in the case of the 8-tonner a constant-mesh AK 5-35 box is used. Engine options for some of the ROMAN models include Hungarian-made Raba diesels, in turn derived from original MAN designs.

The Raba V-8, 235kW unit is the engine chosen for a 30 tonnes gvw ROMAN vehicle which had originally been planned to be fitted with two (I) 99kW diesels side by side. All ROMAN cabs are based on the MAN short standard shell. Other MAN licensed models under development at Brasov include a city bus with air suspension.

Italian road tolls

With Dutch and German operators heading the list of foreign victims, thefts in Italy of lorries and their loads have reached new heights. Last year over 4,200 heavy vehicles were stolen and, according to Italian newspaper reports, only 3,450 were recovered again—minus their loads. Even the use of official customs compounds is no safeguard as several users found to their cost.

Domestic operators have also been hit by increases in road tolls averaging 15 per cent on most of the country's motorways. Routeing traffic away from the autostrade to ordinary roads is now more widely resorted to in an effort to control rising operating costs. A " nefarious " practice has been introduced at the Austro-Italian frontier where south-bound commercial vehicles are now forced to use the final (Austrian) toll section of the Brenner motorway as the only authorised approach to the new customs inspection post and lorry park. Many of the regular users including food and milk transporters have already lodged strong protests against the arrangement which requires payments of up to almost £2 for a journey of around a mile.

Although Italy has been one of the earliest builders of motorways—over 5,130km (3,175 miles) are now in use— voices are being raised against the "luxury" of too many autostrade; work is currently in progress on 668km (413 miles) of new motorways and about 1,000km are in the planning stage. Doubts are growing now whether these new additions will ever be built.

The economic crisis which has brought a heavy extra burden to vehicle users while at the same time cutting tax reliefs to the motorway companies has led to an entirely new appraisal of the country's motorway euphoria. Even the state-owned IRI group has postponed improvement schemes for the Milan-Rome-Naples (Autostrada del Sole) trunk route and has stopped the programme for the coastal link between Livorno and Civitavecchia (Rome) which was intended as a relief section to the spine route.

Of more importance to British operators engaged in Italian traffic is the "duplication " of the Turin-Genoa route by another link road between Santhia and Voltri, west of the port. Widening is in progress betwen Genoa and Savona, on several of the heavily-used motorways around Milan and on the Autostrada del Sole between Piacenza and Bologna. All these works should be completed by the spring of 1976.

Little money for new buses

The economic crisis is also blamed for the slowing down of the ambitious programme to provide no less than 30,000 new buses for the Governmentsupported renaissance of public transport. Mainly intended for the 99 municipal undertakings in those towns and cities which had planned—by a combination of traffic restraint and improved bus services—to relieve central areas, the bus plan includes five basic types, three of them urban models and all of Fiat provenance.

With Fiat's production potential of around 7,500 psv annually the only block to the implementation of the ambitious scheme is the lack of hard cash. Deficits in practically every city preclude the placing of large orders although the regions subsidise public transport in step with the support they receive from central government. This year's estimated replacement need is for approximately 5000 vehicles ; it is a target, however, unlikely to be reached although the technical means are there. Until new designs, among them a rear-engined city bus, are finalised the Fiat 421 bus for instance, is the most widely chosen unit.

Tags

People: Bill Godwin
Locations: Milan, Rome, Naples, Turin

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