EXPLORING A NEW FIELD

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 82, 31 December 1928, Page 3

EXPLORING A NEW FIELD

BRITISH RAILWAYS AND AIR TRANSPORT PROBABLE MOVE BY COMPANIES The British railway companies are considering making application to Parliament lor powers to operate air transport services it and when they so desire, but it is understood that this is a measure of precaution rather than an indication of any immediate action. Apparently the lesson of road transport has been assimilated, and the companies do not mean to find their hands tied if development in air transport makes it desirable that they should have an active interest in either air lines or aircraft operation. Statements made by officials of the Great Western Railway aud the L.N.E.R. indicated that these companies were exploring the position. Sir Felix Pole, for instance, in the last issue of the “Nineteenth Century,” discussing the future of British railways, said that "it is safe to say that the railways will certainly not make the mistake made by many canal companies of adhering slavishly to one form of transport, but will adopt all forms according to circumstances or the demands of the future, whether by railway, road, sea, or air.” The L.N.E.R. has gone farther still, and has made arrangements by which through road and air tickets will be issued to passengers by its steamer services to the Hook of Holland, where they will link up with Dutch, Swedish, and German air routes to Malmo, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Berlin. “An aspect of collaboration which we should like,” an official of the latter company said, “would be an air extension farther inland from the Continental ports to which we run our boats. That is a matter which has been seriously considered, and it is more than likely that there will be considerable developments.” In a reference to the subject, the “Times’s” Aeronautical Correspondent writes: —The announcement, so soon after the publication of the difficulty experienced by Imperial Airways in arriving at a working agreement with the railway companies for through rail and air consignment notes, that the railways are themselves contemplating obtaining legal powers to operate air transport is significant, and may explain the reluctance on their part to co-operate with the national air transport company. Their active interests would be welcome, but it can hardly take the form of instituting their own transport services. In the first place, the agreement of Imperial Airways with the Air Council prevents any State subsidies being given to another air concern for 10 years, and if Imperial Airways have decided that at present there is no prospect of a financial return for* internal air lines with subsidies, no other concern without subsidy could hope to operate successfully. Owing to the small distance. between towns in these islands,

the uncertainty of the English weather, and practically owing to the excellence of its rail transport, regular internal air lines cannot be made commercial at any time within immediate view. Irregular private charters allied with other air work may provide a basis for commercial operation, but it must not be overlooked that road transport, more flexible than the railway and adaptable to any points where there is traffic, is likely now to be a serious competitor to any internal aviation development. The proposed move on the part of the railway companies is, no doubt, a wise one, but from the practical standpoint a more general adoption of the attitude of the L.N.E.R. in regard to foreign air lines might usefully fie adopted by the railway companies in regard to the only British air line.