French Railways' Rate-cutting Campaign
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SOME six months ago we dealt with the road-rail struggle in France and the influence of French politics on the commercial-vehicle industry, with special reference to the " Co-ordination" Bill drawn up in the spring of 1934. This remarkable example of legislation proved to be unworkable and much of it had to be redrafted,
In the case of passenger transport, this operation has been carried out successfully and the coaching concerns now manage to live more or less in harmony with the railways. The goods-transport situation is much different, however, and, in certain instances, it seems to have degenerated into a rate-cutting dispute, with the odds strongly in favour of the railways, as their losses are made up by State funds.
The railways have started a general offensive against the transport of liquids by road. During recent years, road transport has become increasingly popular amongst wholesale wine distributors and heavy-vehicle manufacturers have produced some excellent types of tanker to meet the demand. Many of these are six-wheelers of large capacity and have small petrol engines to operate the pumps.
Now, however, the railways have made such enormous reductions in their rates that distributors are returning to the railway tank-wagon, in spite of its inherent disadvantages.
Cheered by their success in the realm of Bacchus, the railways are now approaching liquid-fuel distributors in the same way. Railway stations in certain seaport towns, where petrol refineries are much in evidence, were decorated, last week, with posters of a political nature, These advertisements announce that the railway companies are petitioning the Government to authorize them to make a reduction of
50 per cent. in transport rates for petrol and other liquid fuels.
Now, the delivery of petrol by road has become the accepted method in France, and distributing companies have laid out large•sums in capital for the establishment and maintenance of their fleets. They do not, however, receive any assistance in the way of State subsidy, but, on the contrary, are taxed up to the limit. A great deal of foreign capital is invested in tir distributing concerns and the situation appears to be serious.
One, form of bulk distribution is not likely to be affected and that is water transport. France possesses the finest system of canals and inland waterways in Europe, and, to take only one example, the most familiar sight of all on • the Seine is a tug pulling five or six tanker barges, each of which has 250 tons or so of petrol or oil fuel on board.