BRITISH RAILWAYS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 657, 9 October 1933, Page 3

BRITISH RAILWAYS

BID FOR TRAFFIC REVQLUTIONARY CHANGES AS ATTACK ON ROAD SERVICES ALTERED RATE BOOK Most people have become aware ■' lately that "something is happening" on British railways. Cheaper fares, : better trains, new travelling facilities \ electricity, and other improvements f in the passenger serviees have ■ brought a sense of vitality into an institution which but a year or two I ago appeared moribund, writes R. M. ' Phelps in the "Daily Mail." Only those behind the scenes, how"ever, have so far realised that we • are on the eve of the most revolutionary change in the transport "system of this country that has occurred since the advent of the motor-lorry. The 'railway executives have been quietly preparing for it for months. 'Their plans are now complete, and ' they will be put into operation immediately the Road and Rail Traffiic Bill becomes law. The railway managers themselves hope that it will restore to them comr plete ascendancy over the road trans- ' port systems; that the owners of the latter will be glad to enter into amal- ' gamations or working arrangements with them; and that in the result they will regain a virtual monoply of '■ goods traffiic which they will operate 1 by means of a combined road-rail 1 system. All this is to be made possible by the abolition of the present fixed rate tariff for goods which has hitherto been obligatory on tbe railway companies. Taking All Goods. Before road competition was thought of, and when practically all goods had to be consi'gned by rail, Parliament, for the protection of the public against extortion, imposed on the railways as "common carriers" the duty of accepting all goods offered them for transit at fixed rates, approved by a Railway Rates Tribunal, and varying according to the class of goods and the distance travelled. These rates were fixed with regard to the requirements of industry. Coal and heavy mineral rates, for instances, were pared, and rates for lighter "luxury" goods had a little added to them .in order that over the whole range of traffic the railway companies might expect a reasonable profit. Meritorious as this fixed-rate system may have been when the railways carried all the traffic, it threatened them with disaster when road transport became a serious competitor. The road companies — not bound by any system of standard rates — took ' from the railways the lighter classes of goods on which they expected to maintain their profit margin, and left them with the. heavy traffic, which is often carried at a loss. Bound by Rates. The railway companies were obliged to carry this whenever and wherever offered. Bound by the rate hook, they could not, moreover, even offer competitive rates for the more remunerative traffic which the road companies were taking from them. If : they were ready to make a concession to retain the business of one customer, it could only be done by altering every similar rate in the standard ' hook and applying them to all custom- •' ers. The new system of charges which the Road and Rail Traffic Bill will make possible will operate thus: " To their customer the railway will ' quote a fixed rate per ton (or per cwt) for all classes of goods consigned by him irrespective of distance or ' the nature of the commodity. The ' charge for sending from London to Aberdeen, for example, will be the same as for London to Romford. This flat rate will be arrived at by ' a method of calculating and averaging all the receipts from the custom- ■ ers's consignments over a previous six months' period, and will be one that offers a substantial reduction in the • total charges that would accrue under the standard rates. But — and this is how the railway companies expect to regain their ascendancy — to obtain this flat rate the customer must contract to consign all his goods by the railway company for collection at the door of the factory, and delivery at the door of the purchaser. The advantages of the new system to the customer are obvious. He will 1 get cheaper transport service. He will also save the expense of a large clerical staff necessary to check the charges under ^fhe present complicated system. Gheaper Service. The advantages to the railway companies are also obvious. They will get the whole of the traffic in their hands. Customers who accept the flat rate system will even have to dispense •with their own fleets of motor delivery lorries if now they posses them. The railway companies, on the other hand, will have to acquire enormous numbers' of motor-lorries to perf orm their new ohligations of door-to-door trans- ' port. . . The railway companies have aiready arranged among themselves that the flat rate system shall be universally applicable — that is, that it shall covcr carriagc by more than one company— a:id they have set up a sort of jolnt gencral staff for d ealing with the problems that may arise. Already hundreds of firms, ma..y of whose names are household, words, have entered into provisional contracts with the railway companies for the flat rate system ready to be put into operation as soon as the law allows. Ultimately, the railway officials believe, almost every firm, big or small, which has goods to send, will thus hand them over to the railways for the combined road-rail delivery. And then? Well, we shall see.