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Road and Rail: "Fundamental Gulf"
Page 54
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QPEAKING at the annual dinner of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce last Friday (at which Dr. Richard Beeching, B.T.C. chairman, was also a speaker) Mr. J. B. Mitchell, national chairman of the Road Haulage Association, said "Although we (the railways and the road hauliers) are both providers of transport, in many respects we could hardly be more different.
" On the question of speed there could hardly be a greater contrast. We are criticized if we go too fast. Dr. Beeching is criticized if his trains go too slow. In fact there is a particularly harsh provision in the Government's Road Traffic Bill that will take away a driver's licence if during three years he has committed three out of a long list of offences, of which speeding is only one. Admittedly, where speeding is a danger to the public, it should be punished. But we all know that very often a vehicle could exceed the speed limit in perfect safety and it seems wrong to say that a man should, in such circumstances, run the risk of losing his livelihood.
" It seems to me," he said, "that the division between road transport and the railways is fundamental—it goes all the way through.
"The great merit of the Government's other piece of legislation, the Transport Bill—the measure has its demerits as well —is that it so clearly recognizes that rail is rail and road is road and they both have their separate functions.
"Dr. Beeching, I believe, feels very much the same. Or at least I hope he has not brought with him from a taste for mergers.
"There has always been co-operation between road and rail and there always will be. It is a cood thing in itself and ought to be encouraged, but not forced.
"Provision for a cross-Channel link, be it tunnel or bridge, without free road movement would be an attempt to force road vehicles on to rail without any guarantee that the rail facilities, when provided, would be fully used. The original cost of such a project as a Channel tunnel or bridge can only be recouped by tolls if it carries a substantial volume of traffic and if the overall cost of movement across the Channel compares favourably with a sea ferry service.
"I know that the solution of this problem is not an easy one."
Road operators, he said, took pride in the fact that the personal, specialized, door to door service that they gave was something unique in the field of transport. It could be preserved only by means of a completely independent and highly competitive road haulage industry.
BIRMINGHAM ELIMINATOR
THE Birmingham eliminating round for the Lorry Driver of the Year Competition is to be held on May 13, starting from the Serpentine Ground, Aston, at 9 a.m., and finishing at Fort Dunlop.
MAIDSTONE ROUND, JUNE 3 THE Kent eliminating round of the Lorry Driver of the Year Competition is to be held on June 3 at Lockmeadow Open Market, Maidstone, commencing at 8 a.m.
I.T.A. INSURANCE PAPER
THE application of insurance to trade and road transport will be the subject of a paper to be given at a meeting of the Manchester Division of the Industrial Transport Association in the Court Room, All Saints, Manchester, on March 13, at 7.30 p.m.