The proposals for reshaping the railways are all directed towards giving them a route system, a pattern of traffics, and a mode of operation, such as to make the field which they cover one in which their merits predominate and in which they can be competitive.
To this end, it is proposed to build up traffic on the well-loaded routes, to foster those traffics which lend themselves to movement in well-loaded through trains, and to develop the new services necessary for that purpose. At the same time, it is proposed to close down routes which are so lightly loaded as to have no chance of paying their way, and to discontinue services which cannot be provided economically by rail. These proposals are, however, not so sweeping as to attempt to bring the railways to a final pattern in one stage, with the associated risks of abandoning too much or, alternatively, of spending wastefully.
Although railways can only be economic if routes carry dense traffic, density is so low over much of the system that revenue derived from the movement of passengers and freight over more than half the route miles of British Railways is insufficient to cover the cost of the route alone. In other words, revenue does not pay for the maintenance of the track and the maintenance and operation of the signalling system, quite apart from the cost of running trains, depots, yards and stations. Also, it is found that the cost of more than half of the stations is greater than the receipts from traffic which they originate.
Amongst traffics, stopping passenger services are exceptionally, poor. As a group, they are very lightly loaded and do not cover their own movement costs. They account for most of the train miles on much of the lightly loaded route mileage, but also account for a considerable train mileage on more heavily loaded routes, and are one of the main causes for the continued existence of many of the small and uneconomic stations.
Fast and semi-fast, inter-city passenger trains are potentially profitable and need to be developed selectively, along with other forms of traffic on trunk routes. High peak traffics at holiday periods are, however, very unremunerative. They are dying away and provision for them will be reduced.
Suburban services feeding London come close to covering their full expenses, but give no margin to provide for costly increases in capacity, even though they are overloaded and demand goes on increasing.
Suburban services feeding other centres of population are serious loss makers, and it will not be possible to continue them satisfactorily without treating them as a part of a concerted system of transport for the cities which they serve.
Freight traffic, like passenger traffic, includes good flows, but also includes much which is unsuitable, or which is unsuitably handled by the railways at present. The greater part of all freight traffic is handled by the staging forward of individual wagons from yard to yard, instead of by through-train movement. This is costly, and causes transit times to be slow and variable. It also leads to low utilisation of wagons and necessitates the provision of a very large and costly wagon fleet.
Coal traffic as a whole just about pays its way, but, in spite of its suitability for through train movement, about two thirds of the total coal handled on rail still moves by the wagon-load. This is very largely due to the absence of facilities for train loading at the pits, and to the multiplicity of small receiving terminals
58
