Since the Transport Act of 1947 first set up a nationalized system, inland transport in Britain has been bedeviled by politics. For many years we were in the position of operating a system which had now become law, but was about to be modified by the next Government.

The discussion revolved around whether we should have an integrated transport system or a number of co-ordinated services each of which was a separate organization. An integrated system of transport would be operated by a central authority with the power to say who should operate certain services.

It would clearly be an enormous organization, and experience has already shown that a system of this size suffers from the diseconomies of large-scale operation.

On the other hand, it does provide an overall body to control the opposing faction in transport systems, much of it socially provided, are wisely spent. An integrated service will be governed by the basic precept that what is needed is a cheap, efficient transport system which provides consumers with goods and services at the minimum personal and social cost.

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Three White Papers issued in late 1967 outlined the Labour Government’s proposal, which were put into effect by the 1968 Transport Act. This Act proved to be a very effective Act and for several years the turmoil in transport subsided with a reasonable amount of agreement on all sides. The reasons seem to have been:

(i) Passenger transport-The solution here has been to set up local Passenger services by bus and rail. A national bus company has been get up to take over the bus services previously run by the Transport Holding Company, and with power to acquire voluntarily other under takings.

(ii) Road Policy-The close control of road haulage, which had been a feature of transport policy since the 1930s, was drastically reduced. Directly the Bill became law all vehicles less than 30 cwt. were freed from licence requirements. This meant almost a million tons of capacity became available to carry small loads.

Road transport is particularly suitable for small loads over short distances. The control of larger vehicles, which previously had to e licensed individually, was changed to a system of operators’ Licenses. This meant that a firm which could prove that it had properly qualified drivers, mechanics, etc., and an adequate financial structure could obtain a licence as a vehicle operator.

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It was then free to buy as many vehicles as it liked to operate, and a strongly competitive situation developed, with larger firms able to develop a full service to customers without objections from small operators.

(iii) Railway Policy-The railways were thus forced to face quite severe competition from an increasingly efficient road haulage industry, but were compensated to some extent by being set free from the accumulated debts that had developed over the years since nationalization. Fuller use of railway workshops and vehicle-maintenance departments was made by permitting these organizations to compete with private companies in the sale, manufacturer and repair of a wide range of goods.

The official view her is that is ridiculous to have these expensive assets which have been provided at public expense, under-utilized. Since 1975 the Government has provided large sums to assist the transfer of goods from road to rail to subsidize uneconomic but socially desirable lines.

There has also been in the last few years an agreeable amount of railway enterprise shown in chasing new sources of revenue, with special terms for pensioners, family travel, etc.

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As the United Kingdom transport system enters the 1980s the 44 tone lorry has been sanctioned, the motorway system is almost complete, and some residual cuts in the rail network are being proposed.

Road Transport-A Growth Industry

There are 200,000 miles of roadway in Great Britain, of which about 9,000 miles are trunk roads, 80,000 miles are classified roads, nearly 1,800 miles are motorways and the rest are minor roads.

In 1980 the railways carried 18,000 million tone- kilometres-in other words, more than four times as much. 70 percent of rail traffic was coal, coke, iron and steel. The 30 percent of general cargo represents only about 7 percent of the general cargo being carried by road haulage. This gives some idea of the importance of road haulage in recent years.