Unions Delaying Essential Road Aspects of Liner Plan ?
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From our -Industrial Correspondent L1NER trains, the railways' chief hope 1-4 of winning back substantial quantities of general merchandise from road haulage operators, should be running by the end of this year or by the spring of next year, said Dr. Beeching at a Press conference in London last week. Plans for an extensive system of routes to be covered by the new service have already
gone to the Minister of Transport, and his consent is now being awaited for the substantial capital costs involved.
Dr. Beeching, who was speaking at a conference callcd to announce a £17m. cut in the railways' operating deficit last year, said that apart from the minister's consent, lack of an agreement with the unions was holding up final plans. Talks are already in progress to get the unions' consent to throwing open depots serving the new services to road hauliers' and manufacturers' own vehicles.
This could prove to be quite a stumbling block, as the unions, and in particular the National Union of Railwaymen. would• like to continue the system whereby all goods are delivered to and from the depots by the railways' own fleet of road vehicles. But Dr. Beeching has made it clear that the liner train concept will work only if the depots are thrown open to all kinds of road operators.
At the conference, Dr. Beeching went out of his way to say that the unions were not hostile to the liner project. But he admitted that his proposals presented them with difficulties, including , that of possible redundancies. Therefore, no firm date could yet be given for the start of the new services.