B.T.C. DECLARES IT
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OAD RAIL POLICY 450 Exhibitors at
Main Trunk Traffic by Rail : Cross-country and Feeder Services by Road
HE part that road transport will play in the future of Britain's
nationalized transport system was revealed last week in a statement of policy issued by the British Transport Commission. Road and rail will be developed as complementary agents. Long-distance smalls and wagon-load traffic on trunk routes will be passed to the railways. The Road Haulage Executive will provide collection and delivery services for the railways and will carry on cross-country routes much of the traffic formerly handled by raiL "Throughout, road services, in general, will he operated by the says the statement.
• Traders will have freedom of choice of the method of transport, provided that " regular services of different kinds are available between • the same points."
The B.T.C. regards the railways as specially suitable and efficient for (a) traffic forming complete trainloads, such as coal; (b) serving private sidings; (c) regular traffic which can be carried long distances without shunting; (d) goods, the handling costs of which are less than by road; (e) traffic such as grain and feeding stuffs, for which the railways provide storage, and (0 imports or industrial output of large bulk which must be cleared at once.
To road transport is assigned the functions of (a) local haulage; (b) longdistance haulage where the costs would be higher by rail after allowing for the extra handling, packing and other ' contingencies; (c) loads restricted by the railway gauge, and (d) removals and .similar work requiring skilled packing and handling.
The R.H.E. will eventually provide all road services for freight within the Commission's control, but for the time being the Railway Executive will run and control its collection and delivery services. The railways have begun to
reduce their cartage establishment to a minimum for general requirements, relying on the R.H.E. for marginal and seasonal requirements.
The R.H.E. cartage services will gradually be combined with, or substituted for, those of the railways.
Radial distribution services for individual traders will be provided by the R.H.E. Joint zonal collection and delivery schemes will be developed, in which R.H.E. vehicles and drivers will be employed for new trunk services.
It is unlikely, however, that the R.H.E. will take over all railway collec tion and delivery work at the pnincipal depots in London and other large cities within the next three or four years.
In future, the railways will use road services where staging and transit time,
such as on cross-country consignments, can be saved. This arrangement will , facilitate the running of direct trainloads between the main centres.
British Road Services will employ the railways for direct trunk haulage of smalls traffic and wagonloads over long
distances where the railways are able to make suitable arrangements. These cross-transfers of traffic will; so far as possible, take place concurrently.
Special Services for Fruit
Where the railways cannot deliver perishable fruit and vegetables next morning at the markets, long-distance haulage vehicles will provide the necessary service. Joint road and rail arrangements are being worked out for all perishable traffic.
In answer to a question at a Press conference last week. Lord Hurcomb, chairman of the B.T.C., said that there "will tend to be redundancy of vehicles." At present, the R.H.E. has about 40,000 vehicles, and the railways have some 6,000 motor vehicles and tractors, 18,000 trailers, 7,000 mechanical horses and articulated outfits, and 21,500 horse-drawn vehicles.
A common service for the supply of road vehicles will be developed and operated by the R.H.E. That Executive will also control a full-scale motor engineering service, and will develop existing works or plan new ones in consultation with the Railway Executive. In future. the R.H.E. will overhaul railway vehicles wherever it has
facilities, although, at present, it will riot undertake generally the day-to-day maintenance of railway lorries.
Staff adjustments • will have to be made, but they will be applied "so as to avoid dislocation or loss of effidency and to minimize hardship to the staff affected."
Where members of the staff lose their existing work, every effort will be made to provide them with continued employment at a convenient place on reasonable terms. Both the Railway and Road Haulage Executives lose some 10 per cent, of their staffs through normal wastage each year. " The effect of integration on employment will, therefore, be eased as far as possible so as to take advantage of this wastage," says the statement.
" Recruitment will be regulated so that one Executive is not taking on new staff when the other is reducing its staff in the same area. -Where, in spite of these checks, staff have t6 be .dispensed with, the general principle will be—last in. first out—with reasonable notice, the definition of which is under consideration."
Every effort will be made to put staff for whom there is work in posts of equal value to those they are losing, although stepping down in grade will not always be avoidable. A uniform rate of pay and set of conditions for comparable grades in the several Executives cannot be given.