Room for Road and Rail Transport
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" IN an expanding economy there is room for both road and rail transport, and it is a good thing that the customer should have an ample choice between the two." Mr. G. Wilson (Cons., Truro) made this statement in the House of Commons last week during the debate on the Queen's Speech.
He referred to the survey of C-licence operation by the Traders' Road Transport Association. This made clear, he said, that manufacturers did not spend money on ancillary transport out of pique. Hauliers should not be annoyed with the Government for improving the railways. If C-licence traffic went back to the railways; there would be less congestion on the roads.
The Queen's Speecb contained mention of the Government's intention to improve roads and railways. Mr. Hugh Gaitskell noted the importance of making room for traffic in the towns. He urged the Minister of Transport to take drastic action.
Mr. Harold Wilson thought that the railways had done well in the face of deliberate policies designed to wreck the profitability of State-owned transport, by which he meant the sale to private operators of the more profitable road haulage assets and the unrestricted expansion of C-licensees. He added that the financial structure of the British Transport Commission should be revised.
In the House of Lords, Earl Jelficoe called for an expansion of the road programme, but stated that "one mile of decent highway immediately in the heart of one our great industrial cities may well be worth 20 miles or so of more dramatic rural motorway."
The problem of London traffic should be treated separately.
TUNNEL REBATES REFUSED
AN application for rebates on daily dues to hauliers and C-licensees has been declined by the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee. It was made by the road transport section of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce on behalf of operators who paid on a monthly basis.
At a meeting of the section, it was pointed out that the tunnel was originally constructed for commercial use and that private-car contract-holders received a substantial rebate each month.
SAVING lid. A MILE IT cost lid. a mile less to run an oil engined bus than a trolleybus, and this saving far outweighed the difference in capital cost involved in replacing trolleybuses with motorbuses. Councillor J. Murphy, chairman of Grimsby-Cleethorpes Joint Transport Committee, said this last week when it was decided to recommend the scrapping of trolleybuses in a year.
STRIKE THREAT
EEMPLOYEFS of St. Helens Transport Department have threatened to stage a one-day strike tomorrow in protest against working schedules.