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Have Railways the Right to the Roads?

9th July 1914, Page 3
9th July 1914
Page 3
Page 3, 9th July 1914 — Have Railways the Right to the Roads?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

By a Manchester Man.

Signs are not wanting that the can tinued increase in motor-propelled traffic on our roadways is creating sonic little disturbance in the mind; of the general body of railway magnates, For nearly 70 years the various railway interests have acquired roads, lands, privileges, compulsory ownership and exemptions until Great Britain has become virtually a network of Ittilways. In addition, it must be borne in mind that these railways usually control the shortest distances from point to point. Fields, parks and private property have been voluntarily or compulsorily acquired year by year, in order to lessen distances and obviate at times long detours.

Hitting the Independent Carrier.

The road carrier is faced to-day with the necessity of carrying goods longer distances between the same two points than the railways. This, of courae, makes competition dearer for the road carrier, and it behoves iiina from now onwards, to watch with a jealous eye for any signs of encroachment on his rightful territory. That this warning is no bogey lies in the fact that, within the last 12 months, a railway company sought powers by a Bill in Pa rliament to convey goods and passengers to and from their stations, or otherwise, and to make contracts for the supply of road vehicles. This Bill, after opposition, was amended, but it is a clear sign of the unrest in the railway mind created by the increasing road competition. [We understand the opposition was from the Mansion House Association on Railway and Canal Traffic.—ED-2 It goes without saying that railway companies must nut be allowed to enter into competition with road carriers, and that motor manufacturers, traders and carriers must, in self-defence, spare no means for the prevention of any such unjust extension of an existing monopoly. When it is considered in its true light, this attempted interference with the road carriers' and traders' right of alternative methods of carriage is colossal 211 its impudence.

Railways, Canals, and Road Strangulation.

The railways, when in general competition, carried strangulation to a pitch which would have exercised the professional envy of a Thug: their expenses in acquiring traffic from each other grew to such enorMOUS proportions that they were cempolled to embrace fraternally_ Hence the recent pools, combinations and working agreements, Competing canals have, from time to time, been acquired and garrotted, and in many cases rendered derelict. These two factors, hampering the trade of the country year after year, have found a check in the increased knowledge of mechanism and the evolution of the motor vehicle.

Realizing this, the railway companies are apparently bent on attempting (but in this they will not succeed) an increase of their monopolies, by competing with and eventually strangulating road eat. riage, thereafter, ferciug road-carriage rates so high a..; to make it cheaper for the long-saffering trader to revert again to the railways.

Traders and Carriers on the Alert.

Just as the railway companies protect themselves by warnings and notices generally on bridges and level crossings, so must the trader and carrier put up their notices to the railway companies by continuous watchfulness and opposition to these attempted encroachments into their rightful territory. As a matter of fact, this poaching has been going on quietly for some time, and the sooner there is a determined movement made by the associations concerned, the less difficult will the matter become. Supineness will inevitably spell disaster to the independent carrying community, unless strong measures are taken at once against these insidious attempts to join in and interfere with the only remaining rights of the common ca,rrier by road.

Extension of Cartage Limits.

One of the moat, significant aspects of the subject (and there are many) is that the railway companies have now a means of linking up outlying districts between stations, if allowed, and thus creating a, double monopoly by rail and by road. We shall possibly hear, in the future, of cartage boundaries increased beyond all recognition, in order to attract traffic to rails, and so to strike another nail in the coffin of the oor road carrier, and at the same time the doling out the same old niggardly rebates to those who have the temerity to cart their own goods from the stations.

Even the old country carrier will not be able to make a living, for, if the stoppage at once of any movements by the railway companies to acquire a share of theroad traffic, legitimate or otherwise, is not quickly effected as they arise, there will be no limit to their depredations. Every Bill in Parliament should be carefully watched and " scotched" whenever anything in the nature of increased powers for road carriage is sought.


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