Labour M.P.'s Plan for Revitalized Rail
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
WITH the Beeching plan for revitalizing Britain's railways all but ready, pressure from the interested lobbies is beginning to build up.
On the union side, general lines of approach towards the plan are emerging. One is the well-wont comparison of "free" road maintenance enjoyed by road hauliers as against the unsubsidized tracks maintained by the railways.
Latest to speak out on this topic is Mr. Charles Mapp, one of the railway union M.P.s, who sits for Oldham East. "Government subsidy for track cost, as is the case for roads, would take railways out of the 'red ' ", he says.
Mr. Mapp puts forward a two-point plan—presumably to be implemented by a Labour Minister of Transport—for getting traffic back on the railways:—
I. The Railways Board should ensure that its rates and fares did not exceed 10 per cent either above or below the known road transport charges. This step in itself, he says, would divert much longhaul traffic from over-used roads to under-used rail without physical controls.
,2. Traffic courts should dc-license road transport for selected traffics and for selected routes, provided a court was satisfied that cost and service, which must include modern facilities and comparable journey times, was fully available by rail. Coal, mineral and certain other bulk and heavy traffics would he " decanted " to rail beyond certain distances—possibly 30 or 40 miles.
For other than the bulky and basic traffic the courts should consider the 11-hour driving day as the basis of licensing. This would mean that approximately 100 miles would be the radius, taking into account loading. unloading, rest and return times of the A and C licence holder. But again, says Mr. Mapp, it would be for the Railways Board to prove the adequacy of its service and facilities.