Over the Rainbow
Page 37
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EXPERIENCED users of transport must despair of ever having a truly competitive railway service after reading "A Study of the Relative True Costs of Rail and Road Freight Transport over Trunk Routes" by the British Railways Board (see next page).
Between the wars the railways first chose to ignore road transport. Then when competition from that source made such a Canute-like attitude untenable they complained that they were hamstrung by the statutory requirements as to classification and publication of rail charges. Then we were told it was their obligation to carry which proved their undoing.
Now in their costs study they are at it again despite the freedom granted to them in recent Acts. Road operators, they say, are not paying their whack towards " true " road costs. If only their competitor could be made to pay more!
Yet they admit in their own Cost Study that because rail and road are not alike in either physical or cost structures a simple overall comparison of costs is not possible. But strangely enough they claim that one field of operation trunk haulage—does allow for a fair comparison between road and rail. And even more strangely it concerns just the very traffic rail would most like to filch from road!
Transport is a service industry. Any study of transport taken in isolation from comparative standards of service is at best an academic exercise. At worst it could lead to the adoption of a policy for transport which would ultimately slow down the whole tempo of trade and industry. The right of the customer to opt for the flexibility and door to door convenience of road transport must remain paramount in determining the transport policy of this country undeterred by special railway pleading however impartial its presentation may be.