How to Write Off E112.7m.
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A Special Correspondent Looks at the B.T.C. Report and Accounts IN 1960, British Road Services earned £3m. more than in I 1959, but their net receipts were little more than half those of the previous year, because working expenses rose by. over £43-m. This is the verdict of the British Transport Commission's annual report and accounts for the year ended December 31, last. The Tilling and Scottish bus companies returned a net surplus of £6.5m., which was £0.1m. lower than last year. London buses earned £5.4m. (£4m, last year).
It was a year in which the Commission as a whole recorded a total deficit of £100.9m. (in 1959 it was £73.8m.). The British Railways deficit was a staggering £112.7m.—easily their " record " year. The working deficit was £67.7m.
The Commission's report more or less shrugs it off, however. A summary of the accounts circulated to the Press, is smugly headed "Transport Commission Deficit as Forecast." The report itself writes off the railways' mammoth red entry thuswise: "The benefits achieved from technical modernization, though well up to expectations, have thus been masked and heavily outweighed by the decline in heavy traffics coupled with the trends in wages and the weaknesses of the freight market."
The Commission still stand firmly by their modernization plan and also say: "We remain convinced that British Railways should achieve an operating surplus within a few years."
"Whatever the new forms of structure introduced into the nationalized transport undertakings in future," says the report, "the fundamental problem will remain a reconciling the growth and freedom of private transport with the need to preserve public services which are healthy and efficient."
So much for the railways and their eternal promises of "jam tomorrow." The fact that they lost an extra £25.7m. (the difference between this year's working deficit and that of 1959) apparently does not matter.
BRITISH ROAD SERVICES carried their highest tonnage (17.4m. tons) since the halcyon days of 1955 and earlier. They operated fewer vehicle miles (294.7m., compared with 296.1m. in 1959), and consumed more dery (25.9m. gals., compared with 24.9m. last year) but less petrol (1.6m. gals., compared with 2.7m. gals. in 1959).
The fuel consumption follows the pattern of fleet changes. 'At the start of 1960 B.R.S. had 13,226 diesel-engined vehicles and 2,685 petrol-powered ones. By the end of the year the totals were 14,236 and 1,948. This represented an overall increase of 273 vehicles and articulated units during the year. The number of additional trailers rose from 5,781 to 6,422. Total tonnage capacity rose from 192,924 to 203,179.
Gross receipts increased by £3m. to £55.5m, mostlythrough increased general haulage work. Working expenses rose to £53.8m. (149.5m. last year) mainly because of the effect of wage awards and an extra £1.5m. which had to be paid for hiring and sub-contracting. It is said that higher working costs arose also from increased vehicle mileage, whereas the statistics, as quotedjust 'now; sarothensise.
. Regular, parcels and 'general traffic, say B.R.S., was lost to competitors because of the strike over the 30 m.p.h. speed limit, -and recovery was difficult. "Previous rate levels were depressed," admits their report. Even the rates rise in private enterprise haulage last November, so far as general haulage was concerned, was "gradual and selective." All in all, one gets the feeling that B.R.S. would like to put a lot more rates up. But.then, no doubt, so would everybody—if they could!
Over '900.000 tons of coal were sub-contracted by B.R.S. to private hauliers in 1960;. the operation continued this year. One unusual sidelight—B.R.S. carried a greater proportion of its 1960 tonnage for local delivery than hitherto. This was "less remunerative," the report wryly points out. Proof of B.R.S. alertness—over £4-m. was spent in t960 on vehicles and equipment to meet the special requirements of customers.
A parcels pointer—roughly 80 per cent of the total parcels tonnage passing over 250 miles was trunked by rail in containers. B.R.S. (Contracts), Ltd., added 230 vehicles to their fleet. These were the net receipts of the individual companies: a42 British Road Services, Ltd., £397,012; B.R.S. (Contracts), Ltd.. £428,005; B.R.S. (Parcels), Ltd., £136,533; and B.R.S. (Pickfords), Ltd., £985,714. B.R.S. (Meat Haulage), Ltd.. had a net deficit of £166,325.
That, briefly, is the story of how B.R.S. had a net surplus of £1.8m. in 1960, compared with one of 13.2m. a year earlier— and despite earning £3m. more in 1960. Incidentally, should B.R.S. ever come on the market, their fixed assets and goodwill are given (net) as £48,548,011, compared with £47.1m.
The TILLING AND SCOTTISH BUS GROUPS had an" as you were year" according to the accountants.. It is unsatisfactory to have so many companies, with fluctuating fortunes.. lumped thus together, but anyone with enough shillings and plenty of time can go along to Bush House, in London. and carry out his own company-by-company breakdown of the Tilling concerns. The rest can be found in Edinburgh.
Nevertheless, united they had net receipts of £6.5m. which was only £0.1m. below 1959. A measure of the effectiveness of bus companies' economy measures can be gained when, against the 11.5m. rise in working expenses, is placed the £2.2m. increase in the 1960 wage hill. The companies managed to "win back" £0.7m.—a fine effort!
Most of the extra receipts came from the Tilling Group, who grossed /41.165,696, as against £39,965,274 in 1959. The Scottish Group grossed £21,058,456 in 1960, compared with £20,879,176 the previous year. The Tilling Group. at 359.9m. Miles, operated 93,000 more service miles than in 1959; empty mileage, at 8,040,000, rose by 128,000. The Scottish Group (177.2m miles) ran 74,000 fewer in service, but 14,000 more empty (3,919,000). The Tilling increased mileage was largely tours and private hire.
Single-deckers operated by the two groups returned better fuel consumptions (Tilling 0.05, Scottish 0.03 m.p.g.) than in 1959, but double-deckers (Tilling 0.10, Scottish 0.04 m.p.g.) returned worse figures than the previous year. The figures were: single-deck (Tilling) 14.60 (Scottish) 13.11; double-deck (Tilling) 12.32 (Scottish) 10.47.
At the end of 1960 the Tilling and Scottish Groups owned (combined) 14,023 vehic1es---33 fewer than in 1959.
LONDON TRANSPORT road services had .a good year, contributing £5.4m. (an increase of £1.4m) to the Executive's overall net receipts of £7.9m. in 1960 they earned £56.9m. on their buses, compared with £55.1m. in 1959, £48.6m. in 1958, and 159.3m. in 1957. Those figures are the measure of how strike, staff shortages and private transport' have _affected London's buses. •
Working expenses rose by £0,4m., so that the increased passenger revenue oustripped it, but there was' a decline in short distance journeys, which must surely be laid at the door of staff shortages. They started the year with 34,213 platform and 2.727 supervisory staff, recruited 6,787 and 3 respectively, but still ended the year worse off at 33,170 and 2,592. Overall, the Tilling and Scottish companies managed to find slightly more than they lost, ending the year fractionally better, with 38.778 platform and 1.556 supervisory staff.
London Transport's fleet of passenger vehicles available for service was 7,287 at the end of the year, compared with 6,949 at the beginning. In all, the Executive still owns 818 singledeckers. 6,925 double-deckers and 723 trolley buses. Their average fuel consumption decreased by 0.06 m.p.g. during 1960 to 9.15 on central buses, and by 0.04 m.p.g. to 10.27 on the country fleet.
The RAILWAY COLLECTION AND DELIVERY fleet, still the largest in the country (34,570 rigids, artics, trailers and semi-trailers with a tonnage capacity of 134,971), carried 7.8 per cent. more freight and 3.9 per cent. more parcels. The totals, respectively, were 1,937,000 tons and 6,829,000 tons. They have only twice owned more vehicles, in 1957 (35,056) and 1958 (34,631).
During the year their working expenses were /22,133,290 compared with £19,611.954 in 1959.