A Peep Into the Future?
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yEARS ago the vagaries of semi-skilled, uncontrolled road surveyors were brought into the limelight by the rapid extension of the new power locomotion. There were hundreds of different sorts of roads, dependent upon the individual ideas of the hundreds of road surveyors of this parochial system of road making and maintenance.
The call for, standardization was obvious and logical, and a national authority waa constituted, with the resources for research and experiment— unavailable to the parochial surveyors—for the development of the best roads it was then possible to obtain, but within the limitations of the powers delegated to them.
At the present time, amid the customary objections, the Ministry of War Transport is weaning the traffic on those greatly improved roads, from the. unavoidably parochial operation due to small units, as compare'd with the possibilities of country-wide , operation. Obviously, with his extensive powers he can enforce the institution of broader views, less clashinr, of personalities and overlapping of interests. I this co-ordination he is able to draw upon the experience of the imposition of control over the public transport system of London some 20 years ago. • One remembers well the " pirate " buses of that time, and the racing for passengers between the pirates and the " General " buses. It was a condition of things calling for -action, and the opportunity was taken to constitute the London Passenger Transport Board, with supreme authority in that class and region of transport. .
Obviously, the present move in the Government Haulage Scheme follows on the experiences of that reorganization, with the intention of a countrywide control of road transport probably extending beyond that now instituted.
The London authority naturally assumed control of the type and design of vehicles which it was to operate ; it is also logical to suppose that the same thing will happen in the new and extensive 'organization. , Under such conditions it may be useful to conjecture on what lines the Ministerial authority Will reconstruct the sadly depleted fleet of vehicles when the time comes for that to be carried out.
First and foremost, the national economics of the post-war financial stringency, which is so generally promised and even threatened, call for a fixed and inalienable policy of British fuel for British transport, This does not mean that lumps of coal or tags of coke, creosote or gas, or even oil from coal, as we know the things, will be the future fuel. It does mean, however, that this is where the Minister of Fuel will come in, with the knowledge he Will have acquired of Russian underground gisification of coal and liquefied methane ; Italy's methane for road and rail transport ; and the American use of propane and butane for the same purpose. By the time it is required that Minister will surely have some carefully prepared scheme for the utilization of Britain's Own resources. * The other point of the Minister's plan will be to take into consideration the 'human side of the situation, , the worker to-day being increasingly considered as an equal, and not merely as an underling of prolit-making individuals or concerns.
Think what a pleasant vorld it would be if there :were no roaring engines, hissing carburetters, groaning gears, clashing changes ; no creaking coachwork and rattling windows; if all the traffic in our cities and on the highways and by-ways of the land were of the order of silence of the trolleybus or the steam cars or the Clarkson buses 6f old.
'What a world, Mr: Minister! But it can be done. What was it Nelson said " England expects