ROADS AND RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1930, Page 8

ROADS AND RAILWAYS.

A recent cablegram states that though it is only two years since the British railway companies were given authoriy to enter the road transport business practically every village is now connected with the railway system. The companies have expended £7,500,000 on road transport, and are now part-owners of 14,000 out of 35,000 large passengercarrying vehicles, and are interested in road services carrying 561,000,000 passengers annually. The amount expended by the companies on road transport is small, of course, in comparison with the thousand millions capital investment in the railways, but it is sufficient to prove a valuable instrument in the promotion of that co-ordination of services which is the declared policy of the railway companies. It has given the railway people a voice in the control of road transport. The plan adopted by the Great Western, the first of the big companies to make use -of road services, was to’ purchase an interest in the road companies operating in its area, and then to begin allocating traffic on economic principles. It was not possible at once to direct all traffic back to the railways, but road and railway began to share, according to their capacity to handle the traffic economically. The result is the lihking-up of practically every village with the railways. The companies’ task has probably been less difficult than that which faces the New Zealand Railway Department. Similar co-ordination of effort to that which is proving so successful in Britain is <’-sirable in this country, but similar means to obtain it can scarcely be employed. The Railway Department has entered the road transport business and aims to avoid wasteful duplication of services, but railway interference with private enterprise constitutes a difficulty. It is not desirable that there should be compulsory control of transport in order to help the railways, but a certain measure of control, assisted by the voluntary co-operation of the two interests, should bring about a better state of things.