Discussing Transport and the Community
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
SET times for lorries to arrive at London Docks, carrying cargo for a particular ship for off-loading may be introduced as a means of ending dockland delays and congestion. This was one of the points made during the oneday course on '' Transport and the Community" held at the College of Technology, Sheffield, on Tuesday.
Other points made by speakers included: a plea for the Government to allow 12-metre (39-ft. 5-in.) buses and a suggestion that some form of taxation should be imposed to restrict the growing number of vehicles operating under C licence.
It was the third annual one-day course organized jointly by the Sheffield section of the Institute of Transport and the Department of Commerce and Management.
The 170 delegates—representing road haulage and passenger transport concerns and British Railways — heard four speakers: Mr. C. T. Humpidge, president of the Municipal Passenger Transport Association and general manager of the Sheffield transport department; Mr. H. A. Codd, joint general manager, Elliott Traffic Automation Ltd.; Mr. D. Perkins, general manager, Port of London Authority; and Mr. J. Hancock, assistant general manager (commercial) B.R. Eastern Region.
It was Mr. Perkins who said that some form of timed deliveries might be introduced at London Docks.
Speaking on "Ports in the service of the nation ", Mr. Perkins said that some 4,000 lorries came into London Docks every day, as well as barges and some traffic (" but not enough") by rail, and with more than 1,000 ship movements a week in the port it should be easy to appreciate how a minor delay or mishap could cause a hold-up. When ships were diverted to other ports, they ran into very similar trouble, he added.
To try and prevent the congestion, the Port of London Authority kept ships waiting down river until the docks were ready to handle, with the labour available, the particular cargo they were carrying. Mr. Perkins admitted: "We put off this regulating system a little too long." If consignees would get their goods to the docks in the first few days, lorries would be in and out the same day. To this end, Mr. Perkins said that the P.L.A. intended to experiment by imposing some form of phasing.
Questioned on the amount of cargo carried to the London docks by barges, Mr. Perkins said that about 60 per cent was carried in that way, with 40 per cent by land. Traffic was being diverted slightly from barge to land and the proportion was beginning to approach 50-50. The Authority was now considering how It might receive liner trains straight into the docks, he added.
The points regarding road haulage and passenger service vehicles were made by Mr. Humpidge, who spoke on "National 1egislaiion and transport ". In tracing A24 legislation from the days of the turnpike, Mr. Humpidge stressed that "Government legislation in this country has never really helped transport; rather it is quick to control it and hamper its development Recalling the restrictions of the Tramways Act of 1870, Mr. Humpidge said that but for this Act "we might have seen large inter-urban networks of tramways. Tramways might have been modernized and retained as is being done now in Europe. There is no doubt a vast mistake was made ".
Describing the 1930 Road Traffic Act as "a masterpiece of legislation ", Mr. Humpidge said 'there was a special provision in regard to the running of p.s.v. by local authorities which, unfortunately, greatly restricted the scope and order of operation, especially with regard to contract carriage". Commenting briefly on fares, he said "Legislation .offers no objection to tapering fares which are common on road services, whilst railway fares do not taper, at least under 200 miles." If road fares did not taper, this would make a substantial difference to the ratio of people travelling by road and rail. Mr. Humpidge said that figures showed " there is no real relation between road and rail fares, which, to my mind, is entirely wrong ".
On vehicle dimensions, he said: "Legislation has been most restrictive in regard to length and has retarded the construction of modern buses for years and years . . . only by constant pressing were increased lengths permitted in penny numbers' ". He expressed the hope that we would soon have 12-metre buses.
Commenting on events following the end of the 1939-45 war, with the nationalization of transport, Mr. Humpidge said "the idea, presumably, was to do for road haulage what the 1930 Act did for passenger transport; but it failed because there was no proper co-ordination and there was the loophole that there was no restriction at all to the issue of C licences ".
This point was taken up in the question period that followed, when a delegate said it appeared that Mr. Humpidge wanted some form of restriction on C licences. Mr. Humpidge replied that he felt it was too late to restrict them, but he believed there must be some form of taxation on them, whether it be by weight or some other method. In reply to another question, he said that any restriction on the number of vehicles on the road had got to come from taxation.
After referring to rural bus services in Lincolnshire now being subsidized jointly by the Government and the County Council he was asked whether he considered subsidies for rural services had come too late to prevent many people from finding other means of transport
" some of them not legal." Mr. Humpidge replied that he thought subsidies had come too late. But, he added. operators should persevere with local bus services and should not be in a hurry to make decisions when services had been reinstated. In Sheffield it took a year for the public to get to know a new service.
Mr. J. Hancock, talking on "Railways in 1965; what the traffic will bear ", spoke of their aim to concentrate freight on customer trains (such as the fish runs from Hull) and liner trains, with a more selective service than at present—which may be more expensive—carrying parcels by passenger train.
"The Railways Board", he added, hopes that by offering a keenly marketable product with a shrewd eye on what the market will bear, they will induce customers and road hauliers to bring business to us . . ."
Mr. H. A. Codd, speaking on "Modern developments in traffic control systems ", said that traffic control had not kept pace with the growth in traffic. Link systems were necessary to bridge the gap to Buchanan-type towns, and a vital need was to communicate to drivers just why they were stopped at a particular point.