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Danger of Railway Flat Rates

27th September 1935
Page 30
Page 30, 27th September 1935 — Danger of Railway Flat Rates
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Penzance

ADDRESSES entitled "Road and Rail Problems as They Affect Traders" were given by Mr. Roger W. Sewill, national director of the Associated Road Operators, at meetings of Penzance and Penryn Chambers of Commerce, last week.

AnalySing the flat-rate system allowed to the railways, Mr. Sewill said, at the Penzance meeting, that the A.R.O. had no objection to flat rates as such, but objected to them if they were to be used to exclude road traffic entirely, or if employed to secure traffic at a low rate, obtain a monopoly, and then to raise the rate.

The nation had arrived at the stage when it had colossal monopolies, and nobody knew where these were leading. He complained that road hauliers were not being allowed to develop to their maximum capacity. They realized that the railways must be preserved, and that the nation could not do without them, but there were circumstances in which it was not a question of road or rail, but of transport, which mattered.

At the Penryn meeting, Mr. Sewill contended that there was a bias in B20 Parliament against road transport.

Many of us are also wondering," remarked Mr. Sewill, " exactly how much we can count on the railway system in any future war, in an invasion by enemy aircraft it would not be difficult to blow up one or two of the main bridges on the railway system. How, then, are you going to convey your supplies of ammunition, and food for the civilian population, if you cannot depend on the railways, because of their vulnerability?

"In view of the availability of eastern and southern ports to an enemy. I think the western ports will be the principal ones of this country. Is anybody thinking of an adequate road system, beside the railways, linking up the western ports and London, and of what road transport could be called upon in such an emergency to supplement the railways? "

The speaker also declared that a national board should be set up to take over the control from the local authorities of all roads, and all the money raised in taxation should go to that board to be used in their development.

Tags

Organisations: B20 Parliament
People: Roger W. Sewill
Locations: London

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