The Future of the Railways W E have heard much of
the competition of road transport with the railways. There are now at last welcome signs that the railway companies intend to compete with the road services. They have secured their Acts permitting them to operate on the roads, but they evidently mean to use these new powers, for the time being at least, for the purpose of bargaining with their rivals. Moreover, they have induced their employees to accept an all-round reduction of sixpence in the pound in their wages, thus reducing the companies' expenditure by several millions a year. These measures have been quickly followed by a notice of sweeping reductions in week-end fares, coupled with the extension of week-end privileges, so that more people may be induced to travel by train. It is the beginning, let us hope, of a serious effort on the part of the companies to attract custom, instead of merely lamenting the loss of it.
Everyone who drives much about the country must be increasingly impressed with the volume and variety of the motor traffic on all the main roads, and especially of the long-distance traffic. A year or two ago it would have seemed hardly credible that regular road passenger services would be running from London to Newcastle, but to-day we take them for granted. Even the proposal to run a night service of motor coaches with sleeping- berths to Manchester excites no surprise. The long- distance goods services have developed even more rapidly, and their heavy lorries, often with trailers attached, are to be seen everywhere, both by day and by night. It would be interesting to know what propor- tion of the petrol used in England is carried by road ; it must be very considerable. Vast quantities of meat and other foodstuffs are regularly sent in the great covered lorries that are now too familiar to motorists on the main routes. But the fast traffic in perishable goods and what may be called articles of luxury is only a part of the road-borne goods services. Engineering products and other heavy articles tend to be carried by road rather than by rail. It does not seem a remote possibility that even coal, steel, stone - and ore may to some extent desert the railway, unless the cheaper freights which the railway companies are to offer, when their heavy goods traffic is relieved of part of its burden of local taxation, encourages the coal, iron and steel, and shipbuilding industries to remain faithful to the old methods of transport.
From the purely economic standpoint these remarkable changes appear to involve a severe strain upon the nation's resources. We have in the course of the past three generations constructed at stupendous cost a railway system which is in some respects the finest in the world. The main lines are so solidly built that the heaviest trains can run over them in perfect safety at high speeds. The accommodation for goods traffic is elaborate and is steadily being improved. The passenger trains are better equipped and faster than ever before. Yet now that the railways, with a capital of a thousand millions sterling, are in a position to deal with far greater demands upon them, they are gradually losing instead of gaining traffic. The transfer of passengers and goods to the road services involves a vast and ever-increasing expenditure on the highways. We are duplicating the national transport system at enormous expense, and every costly new improvement in the shape of arterial roads or by-passes seems to increase the traffic and aggravate the problem. It is well known, for instance, that already the new by-pass on the Portsmouth road is often desperately congested. The road-maker cannot keep pace with the increase in the number of goods lorries and private cars. The traffic blocks in the main streets of large towns grow more and more troublesome, and the highways well out in the country are thick with motor vehicles. If the number of light cars and heavy lorries and vans continues to grow at its present rate, many new roads will have to be made or the old roads will become impassable.
The time has come, therefore, for the railway companies to make a determined effort to get back some of this traffic from the road to the rail. There is no reason why heavy goods should be sent long distances by road except that this form of transport is cheaper and more convenient. It rests with the companies to show that they can compete with road transport in both respects. They can reduce their freight rates with comparative ease. Whether they can offer the trader equal facilities is another question which they have to face. It is conceivable that by the use of containers, packed at the factory or warehouse, swung on to a truck, lifted off at the end of the journey and delivered by motor lorry, the companies might meet the grave objection that railway transport now involves a double handling and much risk of damage and loss. It is possible, too, that the com- panies could develop still further their fast goods services and guarantee the delivery of goods within a few hours as the road transport services do. It must be admitted that the railway companies will not find it easy to persuade the trading community that they can do these things. They have too long been accustomed to dictate to their customers, and to accept traffic at the trader's risk without troubling over much about his convenience or his loss. It was the bitter experience of the high cost and interminable delays of railway goods traffic that led the vegetable and fruit growers serving the -London markets to take to the roads, and many other trades followed their example. The railway companies have to forget their monopolistic traditions and impress the trading com- munity with their anxiety to serve the public before traffic can begin to flow back from the road to the rail in any appreciable volume. Yet the task is not impossible. The companies have a national organization, great re- sources and a highly trained and enthusiastic staff, and they realize now that their future is at stake. It will be to the advantage not merely of railway shareholders and employees if they meet with a substantial measure of success. For -keen competition between road and rail will gradually show which classes of traffic can best be carried by each method of transport. The problem of road construction and maintenance, which is assuming alarming proportions, will become more manageable, if the railways can once again be fully utilized.
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