Improved Freight Services.

Freight traffic is exceptionally heavy in this corner of England, and Lancashire contributed largely to the making up of the 286,617,000 tons of freight handled by the Home railways last year. Although at this season, freight business is on the light side, general business is good if not so bright as had been anticipated. An outstanding feature is the rise in popularity of road-rail containers. In 1928 the Home railways had 1,574 container units: today there are 13,800 in service. Introduced experimentally some years ago in selected rural districts, railway country lorry services are another popular activity of the Home lines. These services are maintained by modern motor lorries, operating up to twenty miles from railheads. In all, about 2,800 railheads are fed by the road motor services in question. To-day, the four group lines operate more than 10,000 road motors, these mostly consisting of 2-ton and 4-ton vehicles, supplemented by light vans and heavy lorries for special work. Remarkable increases, too, have been recorded in the numbers of special wagons built for the rail movement of specific traffics. In 1928, the fleet of special wagons totalled barely 6,000 vehicles: it is now in excess of 11,900. But one of the greatest improvements on the freight side has been the wonderful speeding up of goods trains. Apart from the ordinary pick-up services, there are now more than 660 express braked freight trains linking up the principal centres, and mostly giving next morning deliveries.