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Warning to Operators

5th March 1937, Page 37
5th March 1937
Page 37
Page 37, 5th March 1937 — Warning to Operators
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Keywords : Business / Finance

CERTAIN of the remarks Dissatisfied With made by Sir Josiah Stamp at the annual meeting of Effects of Traffi the London, Midland and Railways Renew Scottish Railway should be taken by road operators as a strong warning as to the drastic efforts which are likely to be made by the railways in their 'attempts to cripple road transport.

He even went so far as to rebuke Sir William Beveridge for his suggestion that the regulation of transport under the Road and Rail Traffic Act of 1933 may so restrict the number of long-distance vehicles as to prove a source of weakness in war, and that the matter should be subjected to re-examination from the standpoint of home defence.

This leading spokesman for the railways is keenly dissatisfied with the effect of the restrictions already imposed, and demands that more sacrifices shall be made to the railway Moloch. Yet even an impartial critic cannot but say that the situation of the railways has steadily improved for several years. In 1936 the gross receipts of the L.M.S. increased by nearly £3,000,000, and the net revenue rose to 81.79 per cent. of the 1929 level, compared with 62.66 per cent. in 1932.

He charges road transport with uneconomic competition, but it has never yet been shown that the bulk of the traffic now going by road has previously been carried at higher rates by rail, _ or has, in fact, been the "cream" of railway traffic. Restrictive Recently t h e Licensing C Acts the Traffic Area said that, ap Their Attack parently, only 20 per Cent. of the goods carried by the railways are _accepted at standard :ates. Despite this, the railways clamour for fixed rates for road transport.

Suggestions as to road and rail co-ordination should be viewed with the utmost suspicion when they emanate from the railways, for the so-called co-ordination may be a term to imply suppression of the road side, or such a weakening of its services as to force its traffic on to the rails.

Curiously enough, in those countries where virtual dictatorships have the power to deal with the whole of the transport from the standpoint of its utility to the nation, the road interests are being encouraged rather than restricted. There politicians are not blinded by the roseate fog created by the railways and in which their every action looms out in a romantic halo, whilst road transport is in the background, surrounded by poison clouds of inspired distrust.

The railways complain that the road is taking more and more of their traffic. If this be so, to whom is it going? As the haulage side is strictly limited, the inference is that it is the ancillary operator to whom the reference is made, and the members of this branch of transport, in particular, should prepare themselves for the fray by , strengthening the hands of the associations. '

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Locations: London

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