of haul have a beneficial effect, and that part of the traffic in the last two terminal groups which loads best or travels furthest yields some margin over direct costs as a contribution to system costs.
In the non-station traffics, siding/dock traffic falls just short of paying its direct costs, while siding/siding traffic produces a good margin. These were the terminal combinations for 71 per cent. of all the traffic covered by the survey, of which siding/siding traffics alone accounted for 56 per cent.
These terminal conditions are particularly favourable to rail, because no transfers from vehicle to vehicle are involved, because they give rise to good loading traffics (12·3 tons/wagon), and because a high proportion of the traffic can be moved in trainload quantities. The test week tonnage of freight passing under these terminal conditions is equivalent to 62·5 m. tons/year, and, as has already been mentioned, about 30 m. tons of this is carried by through trains.
The figures as a whole make it very clear that the mineral and general merchandise traffic falls roughly into two main groups, distinguished by whether or not the traffic passes through a station at either end, these being:—
- Siding/siding or siding/dock traffic, nearly two-thirds of which moves in train-load quantities, which accounts for 71 per cent. of the total tonnage, and which, on the basis of the test week, appears to yield a margin over direct costs of about £12 m., p.a.
- Traffic which passes through a station at one or both ends of its transit, which is virtually all based upon wagon load movement with poor wagon loading, and which, on the basis of the test week, appears to give rise to a deficit relative to direct costs of £13 m., p.a.
Even in the non-station based group, not all traffic is good. As has already been mentioned, that which flows between sidings and docks fails just short of covering its costs, partly because a great deal of it is short haul traffic and partly because terminal conditions at docks often cause wagons to suffer long delays.
There is a lesser proportion of siding-to-siding traffic which moves under 25 miles, and the bulk of it is spread fairly evenly over haulage distances from 50 to 200 miles, with fairly good wagon loading for all distances. As will be seen from Table V of Appendix 1, however, about 5 per cent. of the siding-to-siding traffic which loads to less than 6 tons/wagon does not pay its way.
This light loading traffic is not necessarily associated with smaller sidings, although much of it is likely to be. Also, in general, costs of servicing small sidings are greater. It is, therefore, of interest to see, from Tables Nos. 19, 20 and 21 of Appendix 1, how unevenly traffic is spread over the total number of private sidings which exist. About 78 per cent. of all traffic flows through 855 of them, while a further 5,039 sidings account for only the remaining 22 per cent. of the total traffic.
In the station-based group of traffic there is practically none which is good, as handled at present, and most of it is extremely bad. Some of it is so bad that it may well be the right course for the railways to reject it in future, but first it is necessary to consider:—
- whether some of the traffic could be made profitable in future;
- whether some of it must be carried to give full service to important private siding customers;
- to what extent could expenses be saved if some or all of the traffic were not carried?
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