"Convert Railways to Roads " Ai SUGGESTION that redundant railway -routes should
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be converted for use by long-distance road transport has been made by Mr. H. C. C. Carlton, chairman of Notts County Planning Committee. Writing in The Nottinghamshire Countryside," he says that all counties and cities are preparing a development plan under the Town and Country Planning Act. 1947. A national system of motor roads was envisaged in this plan. The roads would be about 80 ft. wide and would arbitrarily run through the countryside, despoiling large acreages of arable land and rural amenities.
Mr. Carlton states that by the removal of unwanted railway tracks, bases for commodious roads would be made available without the tremendous legis iation and upheaval which the institution of a motorway system would otherwise entail. .
The railways, he says, are a liability and obsolete in many/ instances. Many trains half-full start from large centres within a few minutes of each other on parallel routes to London. Not only is passenger traffic tending more to road transport, but the Nation's highways are being " ruthlessly slaughtered" by huge vehicles with heavy loads, including coal, for which purpose the railways were formerly employed. Mr. Carlton suggested that a Royal Commission should examine all forms of transport and should allot traffic to each with the same determination as was evident during the formation of the railways. "There is no doubt that considerable opposition may be met from certain interests," he declares, " but nothing in comparison with that which our forefathers met a 100 years ago in building the railways."
The Road Haulage Association will hold its annual luncheon at Grosvenor House, London, W.1, on May 23.