Transportopia
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k NE of the first books to be published this year is. an paccount by Professor W. H. G. Armytage of the various plans for a better world that have been n up or put into practice in England over the past rears. The first significant contribution to the subject apparently the account by Sir Thomas More of a tey to a country he called Utopia. The name originmeant no place at all, and so far, according to ;ssor Armytage, every proposal and experiment has up to that definition. None of them was successful L it came to putting them into effect.
iother book could well be written about the various nints that have been drawn up for the transport ;try. For the most part, they would show the same icteristics as the first Utopia. fhey would have as starting-point some ideal, which might range from Aetely free enterprise to complete integration; from untry remodelled entirely to meet the requirements hicular traffic to a community from which vehicles igorously excluded; from a transport industry with ailways as the permanently dominant partner to the esale conversion of railways into roads. Most of would also, for various reasons, turn out to be imprac le.
DRE and more these days the tendency is to approach ransport problem in this apocalyptic manner. Whataspect is under consideration at the beginning, the stible temptation is to bring in all the rest. The s of change seem to be blowing from every direction. senses that the reformers are closing in for the kill will not be satisfied until all the familiar landmarks been transformed.
t us suppose, for example, that a survey of transport is with suggestions for changes in the licensing sysThe only purpose of such suggestions would presumbe to ensure a more economic use of the available les. This naturally leads the writer to point out that tan would solve the problem of congestion, which d take him, via the traffic problem as a whole, to
tuestion of road safety. Inevitably, the new Road ic Bill would have to come up, bringing with it the :mment's road programme. This would invite a corneal-with what is happening abroad.and there would nphasis on the need for preparing for entry into the mon-Market.
ie way of trying to guard against errors in whatever is finally adopted is to, collect and classify in advance elevant facts and figures. This might well apply to other things besides licensing. A topical example aide turn-round, in which traders as well as hauliers tking a growing interest. There is no argument about ;ravity of the problem', but it is less easy to fit the )priate statistics. .
it long ago, a report was issued following an inquiry .half of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce into nal delays to road vehicles. It was suggested at the that these delays were costing something like £10m. a in. the West Midlands alone. The calculation becomes ting when it is multiplied several times to represent vhole of Britain. The problem has reached grave
proportions. and the figure is not likely to be far out. The fact remains that it is no more than a guess, and that until it is substantiated there is a ready-made excuse for doing nothing about it.
The results of the inquiry do at least provide an impressive classification of the delays to road vehicles and of their causes. Although nowhere expressed in so many words, the opinion of the investigators shows through plainly that, even where they had only one or two definite examples of a complaint, it was not sensible to suppose that they were isolated. The problem was in every sense one of communication, of extracting the right information in the right form from the firms taking part in the inquiry. What must be done now is to clothe the classification ,with the necessary statistics and examples and to show trade and industry the adverse effects upon them and upon their businesses of prolonged and unnecessary delays in turn-round. Action' on this problem will do as much as anything else to produce the new transport heaven and earth about which so many people seem to be dreaming.
Or the Common Market itself might be made the startingpoint. it would in a short time modulate into some reflections on international transport in general, and these would next be tied up with schemes for a Channel link. This would be found to provide a new approach to the old road-rail controversy. What more natural than that the whole future of the railways should then be discussed, with particular reference to the Transport Bill ROW passing through Parliament. The possible indirect effects of this measure would lead us back to licensing.
It is scarcely necessary to chart the course of a further dissertation starting with the role of transport in politics.
THE unusual interest in the search for a kind of trans.: portopia is not unexpected. For a variety of reasons, there seem certain to be some fairly drastic changes in the field of transport. Whatever shape they finally take, they are bound to have a profound, perhaps revolutionary, effect on every other aspect of transport, and consequently also on the national economy and on the way in which people live. Because so much of the future is speculative, almost any contribution to the discussion ought to be of some help, and this applies even to last week's speculations by Mr. Patrick Jenkin published in the current issue of the journal of the Bow Group.
Sooner or later, somebody in authority will have some far-reaching decisions to make, and before doing so will badly need some good advice. In the meantime, therefore, it does no harm to have, all the angles and repercussions properly studied. In tune with the prevailing fashion, Mr. Jenkin ccivereda wide range. The particular starting-point that he chose was the new 'Transport Bill.
It is surprising how few other attempts have been made to assess the full implications of this piece of legislation. Although on paper it is almost entirely concerned with the railways, its ultimate effect on the road transport industry will be considerable. The legal structure of the industry,that is to say the licensing system, will hardly survive without substantial modifications. It is worth while to know that this is plain to people outside the industry, such as Mr. Jenkin, even if his acttial suggestions hardly constitute a programme.