BREAK THROUGH
Page 62
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EVERY technical or operational improvement made by the railways is paraded •before the public in the Press and elsewhere and is usually greeted as yet another step in the process of winning back traffic from road transport. There is seldom much evidence for this assertion, and in the event it iseven less frequently that the improvement has any noticeable effect on the fortunes of the railways. Sometimes, after a trial period, it is quietly dropped and no more is heard of it.
There is no reason to suppose that this will happen to the Roadrailer, the new double-purpose vehicle that by means of dual sets of wheels can be hauled either as part cf a train or by a lorry. After some months of experiment and demonstration, the British Transport Commission have now placed the first bulk order in this country. They borrowed the idea from the Chesapeake and .Ohio Railroad. ' Reports from the United 'Stites are conflicting. Some say that the Roadrailer is an .outstanding success; others that the pioneering railroad is already: thinking of •
abandoning the experiment and cutting its losses. •
This would be surprising in vie*. of ,the encouraging comments received by the B.T.C. But Whatever ha.ppens in Great Britain, the Roadrailer will Certainly not _fail for lack of adequate publicity. Some of the comments give the impression. that it is ,a master-Stroke„Capable within a short space of time of solving all the problems of the
railways. .
It is not often that a road transport development receives so much attention.' This is not 'because the manufacturers of road vehicles are uninventive or unable to appreciate what makes news. The reason may be rather that, although there have been drastic and outstanding changes within the present century, few of them have made any difference to the way in which the vehicles are 'operated. The principles on which a road transport ,business should be run have remained substantially the same.
WHAT the scientists and technicians are fond of calling the "break through" seems to have taken place almost from the start of the mechanical road transport industry. After the introduction of the first road vehicle it was not long before vehicles were carrying passengers and goods for hire or reward. There may be a claimant for the distinction of having invented the lorry, but the development was so natural that it is almost certain to have taken place simultaneously in different parts of the country.
The road is as old as civilizatioO, if not older. The horseless carriage and cart for the first time made the freedom of the road a reality, It became possible, even with the indifferent roads that are still far from adequate, to pick up a consignment of goods, large or small, and to deliver them in the same vehicle and in reasonable time. Door-to-door transit, previously possible only for short journeys, became commonplace overnight.
With what now appears astonishing rapidity, the various basic types of commercial vehicle evolved. Once again names may be put forward for the original inventors, although the process was so swift as almost to seem automatic. The general aim was to carry to the limit the ability to pick up a load from one exact spot and deliver it to another, and the process was in some cases brought to a remarkable pitch of perfection at a very early stage.
The tipping lorry, for example, seems to have burst n28 upon the world fully equipped, like Minerva from the head of Jove, just as at the present any number of its descendants seem almost to spring from the ground whenever ti civil engineering contractor stamps his foot, and spring in such a hurry that they have .usually forgotten to bring such mundane things as licences from whatever region has spawned them.
It has been said with truth that the tipper is a remarkable precision instrument. It can go almost anywhere to collect a load, often of the most intractable material. It will take 10 tons or more to the required, site, which may also be well off the beaten track, and a skilful driver can tip the material in the centre of the target. This every-day feat has saved innumerable hours of labour, and the saving began with the first tipper. New refinements continue to improve an already high standard of accuracy, but they are no more than refinements. The first tipper alone was responsible for the break through.
MUCH of the technical ingenuity of the railways is concentrated on ways and means of countering the explosive discovery of door-to-door delivery some 50 years ago. The lack of 'flexibility of .which they stand accused will-always hamper them in competition with road transport. They can never hope to overcome it completely. and the best they can do is to foster some development such as the Roadrailer that can at least Create the right impression. By this means for the first time the same vehicle can collect and deliver a load over the railways, at points where there are no sidings. In a modest way this represents a break through, but the limited application of the Roadrailer underlines the magnitude of the problem.
Much of,th-e mental activity of the railways runs in the same direction. Unable to emulate the advantages of road transport, they seek *to bring it under their control, by means of a licensing system coupled to one of the many variations on the theme of integration. The concept seldom finds favour among road operators, even it may be suspected when they are nationalized. They are pleased to work with the•railWays, even to work closely with them, when there is something to be gained. They can much more easily than the railways do without co-operation. It is an aid, not a necessity.
'THE subject of integration, with its political overtones, is again coming to the fore with the evident determination of the Labour Party to renationalize road haulage if they are given the opportunity. The Socialists may feel, in some obscure way, that their obsession will ultimately be to the advantage of all forms of transport. An interesting comment may be found in an article on transport in Russia that recently appeared in The Financial Times under the names of two research workers at the Russian Institute of Integrated Transport Problems. After the Revolution, the whole transport system in the Soviet Union was "planned. centralized and integrated," the article states. Over 40 years later, road transport accounts for only five per cent. of the total turnover. "It caters mainly for local needs, primarily in retail trade, agriculture and construction, but also for deliveries to and from railway and river terminals." If this is where integration leads, the British public are perhaps wise in deciding to have nothing to do with it.