Competitive railway building in the past led not only to duplication of main arteries between some of the principal cities, but also to duplication of passenger stations and all the ancillary facilities such as carriage and cleaning sidings, motive power depots, buildings and equipment, which go with large terminals. Very little has been done, so far, to rationalise the main line passenger services which use alternative routes and terminals, but it is clear, in many cases, that concentration on selected routes and stations would provide equal or better services and permit substantial economies.
For example, studies of the possibilities at Leeds and Bradford, each of which has two large stations, are in an advanced stage. The need to retain separate main line services to Exeter and the West via both the Southern and Western routes is being examined. The Caledonian, the Glasgow and South Western, and the North British Companies left a legacy of four large terminals in Glasgow. The London and North Western and Midland Companies provided duplicate routes into Carlisle. Birmingham is sewed today by two Regions' services from London. The future of all these, and other comparable parallel routes and duplicate facilities, is being determined, and in some cases discussions are already taking place with civic authorities who are most anxious to collaborate in the development of sites which will be released by concentration schemes.
Before leaving the subject of fast and semi-fast services, it is necessary to comment upon seasonal variations. What has been said so far relates to the steady inter-city traffics, not to the summer holiday and public holiday peaks. This peak traffic differs from the steady traffic in two important respects:—
- (a) much of it is far less profitable than the steady traffic, and
- (b) it is being eroded much more by the growth of private transport.
Total passenger traffic during the months of June to September, in 1961, exceeded the average for the remaining eight months of the year by 18 per cent. in June, 47 per cent. in July, 43 per cent. in August, and 21 per cent. in September. Ten years earlier, corresponding figures were 48 per cent. in June, 96 per cent. in July, 87 per cent. in August and 44 per cent. in September, which shows how the summer peak has diminished, in spite of developments of holidays with pay, greater general affluence, and overwhelming evidence. of greater holiday travel. There can be no doubt that the decline in the rail peak is almost entirely due to the growth of family motoring, and the trend is likely to continue. There has been a similar decline in the public holiday weekend peaks, for the same reason, but these peaks remain very sharp.
Although the figures quoted relate to British Railways passenger traffic as a whole, a predominant part of the total additional traffic in holiday periods falls upon fast and semi-fast train services and the actual peak on some trains, particularly at weekends, may be very many times the normal level of loading. In so far as the increased traffic arising in a peak period can be carried by the regular time-tabled trains, the yield from it is almost all net revenue. Up to that level it is very welcome financially, but the situation changes as soon as the traffic rises to a level necessitating extra trains. Moreover, because the capacity of many fast train services is well matched to the steady traffic, they are not able to absorb very large additional loads unless extra trains are put on.
Extra trains are very expensive to run, and may easily cause a loss which more than offsets any gain from increased traffic on the regular trains, especially if the extras are themselves only part med and if there is no balancing return
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