Today Not Tomorrow
Page 36
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ANOTE of anxiety that prospects far British Railways may not, after all, be "set fair" was detected in a paper delivered before the Institute of Transport in London on Monday. Entitled "Railway Freight Traffic Operation in the Light of Railway Modernization " it was presented by Mr. C. P. Hopkins, general manager, Southern Region, British Railways. He warned railwaymen that the future promised by the modernization plans should not encourage a sense of false security. So much depended on immediate action and the efficient employment of existing equipment.
In 1955 it was announced that the plan was to start within five years and be completed in 15 years. Even apart from some future extension of the time that recent credit-squeeze announcements may have necessitated, it may be that there is growing realization in railway circles that the all-important customer does not intend to wait that long for the standard of service he insists on having now.
"Time is what we are short of," stated Mr. Hopkins in advancing an interim policy of improved service based on more efficient use of present railway assets. Comparison of wartime and present achievements, for example, suggested that " somewhere " there was quite a sizeable margin of spare railway freight capacity. If that be so, taxpayers may well doubt the wisdom of a policy of vast expenditure for the future.
Regarding the implementation of the plan, passenger traffic rather than goods was likely to benefit first. Because freight originates widely and terminates widely, improvements in track, traction, and freight wagons would have to be virtually completed before substantial benefit was derived. Precisely for the same reason, one may add, flexibility of road transport offers an unequalled service. Conversion to road-mindedness in rail thinking was revealed when, in dealing with the criteria by which freight service is judged, Mr. Hopkins agreed that both price and service were involved. • Price in turn was governed by cost, which not only included that of conveyance, but must also have regard to the associated cost of packing and of products tied up while in.transit. Savings under these secondary headings, Mr. Hopkins admitted, were as important to the customer as those in actual conveyance cost.
Mr. Hopkins also stated that it was a most important sales point for a manufacturer to be able to give a definite delivery date, and his choice of transport was often governed accordingly. Not only must there be quick and safe delivery, but there must also be consistency in regularity to obviate the necessity of a trader's having to provide additional stocks to insure against transport delay. Pertinently, Mr. Hopkins pointed out, consignees no longer wished to provide such a reserve. Why should they when other means for transport do not require it?
Fundamental changes are envisaged in terminal facilities. Having concentrated full-load traffic on fewer terminals with road collection and delivery services on a wider scale than ever before, a new approach will be made to road-rail transfers, leading to such a possibility as rail wagons with demountable bodies of the container pattern.
If that should eventually materialize, however, those sections of trade and industry which already prefer to use road transport in preference to rail, because of the higher standard of service offered, may find it hard to. see what benefits they are going to derive from employing a service in which rail forms the middle segment, albeit a reduced one.