THE ROADS AND THE RAILWAYS.
Page 46
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Unsupportable Claims for Road Transport Provoke a Reply which is Well Worth Studying.
By a Railwayman.
. THE COMMERCIAL motor exhibition at Olympia created new interest in the development of road transport, and if.we are to believe the Mother Shiptons of the road transport world, the present generation will witness the practical extinction of railways. In ten years' time we shall be able to wander over the grass-grown tracks of deserted branch railways, and pick blackberries amidst the ruins of station buildings. On the main lines we are to have the spectacle of services reduced to a few mineral trains hauled by antiquated engines hissing out steam at every joint, whilst a few patriarchs, the remnants of an army of railwaymen, lounge. idly about listening to the loaf of traffic on the adjacent roads.
These are not exaggerated statements. it has been publicly announced by the roadmen that not only are railways doomed, but that the process of dissolution has already set in. The only ray of hope is to be found in some recent remarks of, the chairman of the Association of Road Transport Clearing Houses, who has given the assurance that all classes of goods will not necessarily be diverted to the roads l .
Winnow all the foolishness that has been said or written about road transport, and you will find a grain of truth amongst the chaff. Road motors have come to stay, and will play an important part in the transportation of the future. Their true function was expressed by the promoters of road transport clearing houses as being " feeders " to the railways. To say that railway companies look askance at road motor developments is to ignore past history. Railways were the pioneers of road transport and, as long ago as 1904, set up a system of road motor services in various parts of the country to collect agricultural produce from districts contiguous to the railways. If there is to be competition from road transport, it should be welcomed by the railways. Competition is bread and meat to the railwayman. He has been brought up on it; it is part of the training of railway operating staffs to learn how to attract traffic to their railways, and it is through the keenness fostered by competition that the railway industry of this country has achieved the reputation of being second to none in the world.
Road Transport Problems.
The railways have behind them nearly a century of ceaseless organization. Do the roadmen appreciate the significance of all those years of patient striving? If they really believe they can relegate the railways to a secondary position in the transport world, then they have failed to grasp the problems which confront them. To give an efficient road transport service approximating to the facilities provided, by the railways, a system must be evolved which will enable the trader to consign any class of goods, ranging from a box of tomatoes to a steam roller, and from any town to any other town. Let us see how it works on the railways.
c22 In the United Kingdom there are, roughly, fifty thousand goods stations, depots, and merchants' private sidings, and goods or mineral traffic are dealt with at all of them. At any of these centres the trader can consign merchandise or minerals to any other of the fifty thousand stations, depots, or sidings, with the sure and certain knowledge that they will be accepted for delivery.
Take no notice of temporary difficulties arising out of the war. Congestion on the railways is a passing phase which will shortly disappear. The normal position of railway operations is as described. The trader can take twenty thousand 56 lb. packages of a commodity to a goods station any day, each package going to a different address, and there will be no fuss about it. It does not matter if the packages are consigned to places as wide apart as Penzance, Swansea, or Aberdeen, and to every station between these points. It makes no difference to the railwaymen, who deal with heavy consignments of goods every day of their lives. Just think what it means to handle this immense volume of traffic running into millions of tons every month. Some of the monthly totals are : Stone for road making, 450,000 tons ; beer, 100,000 tons; bricks for houses, over 300,000 tons; coal and coke, 15 million tons; flour, 200,000 tpns; and vegetables, 250,000 tons.
Traffic Nibblers.
At present, the roadmen are only traffic nibblers. Before they can make any impression on railway freights they have a long way to go. They will require to build vast exchange stations up and down the land to transfer the goods from one set of lorries to another. Such a project entails an enormous capital outlay. It has cost the railway companies thirteen hundred millions of pounds to give the existing facilities. If the road transport organizations attempt to provide similar accommodation, to obtain a return on the capital it would require prohibitive conveyance rates, and would then ruin the business.
A New Field for Road Transport.
The Government proposals onthe future of transport in the United Kingdom provide for the making of agricultural railways. Sir Erie Geddes's own views are that, generally speaking, light railways for agricultural purposes are not a paying proposition. Road motors have a greater future in opening up outlying districts than any light railway. Traffic is, as a rule, seasonable, particularly in fruit growing centres. Road transport organizations will find it more profitable to turn their attention to this new field of enterprise than to spend-capital on exchange stations. There is money in it, and they will need all they can get to weather the storms that are gathering. Higher charges for petrol, increasing labour costs, and the coming vehicle tax will inevitably thrpw up the rates for road transport, and retard its development. There is plenty of room for road transport, but it will not make headway if it indulges in reckless competition with railways.