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The Railway Problem

Comment by the “London Times.”

The problem of rail and road transport has not yet been satisfactorily solved. The advent of the motor has unquestionably added considerably to the worries of the railway managers in all parts of the world. The London Times, commenting on the position in Britain, says:—The chief cause of the alarming decline in railway revenue has been the unfortunate combination of world-wide trade depression and the steadily increasing competition of the roads. Of these two factors the first, considered in itself, is undoubtedly the more important. But the combination of acute road competition with an industrial depression of unparalleled severity has placed them in a very serious situation. One of the main reasons why the railways have found it so difficult to meet the competition of the road hauler lies in the fact that they are compelled to carry all traffic that is offered them, and to do so are obliged to maintain a very elaborate and expensive permanent way; whereas their rivals are free to pick and choose the more remunerative kind of traffic and to leave the rest to be carried by the railways. There has thus resulted a very uneconomical form of competition which, if unchecked, must destroy the whole freight-rate structure of the railways. If the railways are deprived of their more remunerative traffic their only method of covering their expenses will be to charge higher rates on their remaining traffic, which would be specially injurious to the basic industries. Viewed in this light the competition between the two branches appears irrational and destructive. The apparent cheapness of long-distance road haulage is entirely conditioned by the fact that the railways must continue to carry the bulk of the heavy traffic. The road, in spite of the changed conditions is essentially auxiliary to the railways. Co-ordination, not competition, is the right national policy. The present chaotic situation has arisen mainly because neither the Government nor the local authorities distinguished clearly enough between the proper functions of both forms of transportation. Once it is admitted that the railways are a national necessity, and that the more fully they are employed the cheaper their operating costs, it becomes almost self-evident that to permit traffic to be diverted from them at haphazard is a mistaken policy. Moreover, all the evidence seems to indicate that taken as a whole the railway is still the quickest and cheapest way of transporting merchandise over long distances. The proper function of road transport is what it has always been—local distribution and collection, though the area to which the term “local” can be applied has been enlarged by the petrol engine. For the shorter distances, owing to the convenience of door-to-door service, the road has displaced the railway probably for ever; but for long distances the railway is in every respect the preferable transport. What the country needs is not cheap road transport for selected commodities at competitive rates subsidised at the expense of the ratepayers and taxpayers, but a properly co-ordinated system of transportation which will afford the cheapest and most convenient facilities for the community as a whole.