Ghost Train
Page 73
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Political Commentary By JANUS WHA ELVER rates schedules may finally be agreed by the long-distance hauliers' group of the Road Haulage Association—and whether or not the chedules ever see the light of day—it was at least a sound dea to compile them on a town-to-town basis and not in ccordance with an elaborate and bogus calculation of preise costs. The task must be wearisome of collating charges retween the 70 and 80 chosen centres, and it is doubled P y the fact that the rate from A to B may not be the same s from B to A. The only hope of producing an acceptable chedule, however, must depend upon a close adherence D prevailing practice.
To devise a sound theoretical rates structure is impracticble. Every operation would have to be worked out separtely, and the customer would never know in advance what e has to pay. The nearest approach that can be made to a osting basis is to consult such a guide as " ' The ;ommercial Motor' Tables of Operating Costs." These rovide a logical framework, but every haulier will paint a ifferent picture upon it. He alone can bridge the gulf etween the symmetrical arrangement of the Tables and le haphazard way in which traffic turns up in real life. It must be a daunting task to work out cost tables for ritish Railways. Their financial experts may sometimes ish they were still bound by the old system of classificaons. It saves a good deal of thought if the appropriate tte can be looked up in a book. The new freedom practicIly to make whatever charge seems appropriate is intended ) help the railways to survive in a fiercely competitive rarket, but it also presents them with problems about which lost of their officials have forgotten or have never known. Ir. H. E. Osborn, chief accountant and financial adviser, ritish Transport Commission, has recently admitted that iere is a "great need for railway traffic officers to be 'polled with traffic costing advice," as a background to leir commercial negotiations and decisions.
Terminal Operations
The traffic officers may find little encouragement if they msult Mr. Osborn about what they ought to know. He iggests that for each transit there are four main physical )nstituents. These are haulage (excluding wagon costs), lavision and maintenance of wagons, marshalling, and rminal operations. In addition to wagon shunting and cilities for loading and unloading, the terminal operations ay include handling of goods and transfer to road hides, and collection and delivery by road.
Each of the main items has numerous sub-divisions. Mr. shorn takes haulage as an example. It includes the prosion and maintenance of the locomotive, as well as its raging (which Mr. Osborn calls "stabling ") and servicg. There are the wages of footplate staff and of guards be met under the heading of haulage, and the cost of el, water and lubricants. There are certain exceptions. le wages are those paid in respect of time with the engine aile in traffic, and the item for stabling and servicing does it include the provision and maintenance of the track xl buildings used for stabling, nor expenditure on inspecin, cleaning and boiler-washing.
The transit costs correspond roughly with the running sts in the road-vehicle tables, although they contain an .tment of wages. There are still the standing costs, which :Jude the provision of track and signalling. Most lines e shared by goods and passenger trains; for strict counting it would be necessary to divide joint costs. Perhaps because both types of traffic are carried within the one organization, Mr. Osborn does not seem to make sufficient distinction between passengers and goods in his general observations on the problem of costs. He begins with the typical railway lament over the perishability of transport. The seat-mile, he says, ceases to exist as soon as it is produced. If it is not sold at once, it has no value. The same applies on the goods side. "The unused tonmiles perish as they are produced." Mr. Osborn goes on to speak of the " invisible capacity-ton-miles" that are also wasted. The reference is to the additional wagons that could have been attached to a goods train had there been traffic for them, and the trains that could have been run if needed.
The financial experts of the B.T.C., who have successfully contrived to make an accumulated deficit of £200m. virtually disappear at least from their annual report. may find it easy to live and breathe in a world largely made up of invisible seats on ghost trains. Other people may feel that the analogy between transport and production is not very sound.
" Huit Chevaux, 40 Honunes " On the passenger side it may not seem too inaccurate. The human being in transit puts up with treatment that would call forth protests if it were applied to livestock and certain kinds of merchandise. When he wishes to travel by train, he has to reach and leave the stations by himself. With amenable traffic such as this, the railways would be glad to fill every train.
Goods are far more troublesome. They have to he helped every inch of the way, and the least of the troubles they cause the railways is the haul from station to station. If every goods train were of maximum length and filled to capacity, the congestion at terminals would soon bring the whole railways system to a standstill. The proof of this is apparent whenever for any reason the authorities wish to switch traffic from road to rail.
Further investigation may show that the empty wagon plays an important part in the economy of the railways. Having freed themselves from a tangle of statutory charges classified in accordance with the ancient doctrine of "what the traffic will bear," the railways may feel suspicious of any attempt to formulate a rigid rates schedule. They are undoubtedly tempted to believe that by going for traffic at any cost they will automatically solve their financial problems.
Mr. Osborn encourages this way of thinking. What can be got in a competitive market, he says, is "usually of overriding importance, certainly in present conditions.He recommends as helpful traffic costing advice on the
likely level of the competitor's costs. By "competitor he must mean the haulier under free enterprise. The implication is that every haulier is ready, even anxious, to cut his rates, and that the railway traffic officer should he prepared to go one worse.
Whether inspired by Mr. Osborn or not, some traffic officers, or so certain hauliers complain, are so bent upon filling invisible trains that they are quoting almost invisible rates. It is odd that this should be happening at just the time when the more responsible long-distance road operators are trying to agree a rates schedule. Even before nationalization, the railways and the hauliers were working towards what they called " correlated " rates. It may well he time to resume the task.