ROAD VERSUS RAIL

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 16, 4 October 1929, Page 7

ROAD VERSUS RAIL

REGULATION OF TRANSPORT INDUSTRY NEEDED. RAILWAY MINISTER S VIEWS. “It cannot be denied 1 ,” says the Minister of Railways, the Hon. W. ®. Traremer, in his, annual statement, “that the railway position in this as in every country in the world has been very adversely affected by the introduction of road-motor transport. If we take the passenger figures alone we find that as compared with pre-war the revenue is downgoime £600,000. Taking also the natural increase that took place in the Department’s passenger revenue prior to the advent of the road-motor, we Could confidently have expected that V the passenger revenue alone, but for the influence of the road-motors, would have approximated to the amount of the present deficit, and 1 the extra revenue would have been earned with comparatively small increase in expenditure. The question therefore arises as to what proportion of the railway deficit should be regarded! as properly payable in respect bf the development work of the railways. This obviously will depend on what the railways can be made to earn in the face of the fact that road-motor transport has now to be accepted as a permanentfactor in the transport industry. Before tbfs can be determined it is essential that the respective spheres of railways and road transport should be determined and the fullest possible measure of co-ordination obtain-

ed. As matters are at present, it would (be {impassible to say with any degree of certainty what the railways are worth as a revenue-earn-ing institution. The first step, as it appears to me, clearly is to so regulate the transport industry that the true value of each method of transport can be made clean-.” ROAD SERVICES, “Another matter of growing importance, and one which -will come up more frequently for decision in connection with the department’s operations in the future, ia that of the working of traffic by the department through the medium of road vehicles. My own view is that such operations should be decided upon with very great caution. We are by no means in a position to say that the road-motor operations that are now being carried on in the community are on a sound basis, and I feel that any action on the part of the department in the direction of embarking on road-motor operations to any great extent requires careful exarainationas if might have serious results on the department’s financial position. Considerable attention has already been given to investigating the position of branch lines so as to determine their value as compared with possible alternative forms of transport.”