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Excess of Transport Facilities

At the present moment the world is undoubtedly suffering from an excess of transport facilities, which are naturally fighting each other for business.

According to orthodox theory, this should make for cheapness of carriage, because everybody has to cut costs in order to show profits, but in ordinary commercial conditions not all the factors are taken into account.

When we say that motor transport is cheaper than rail we do not include in the former bill the amount spent out of taxation on making and repairing the roads, or the compensation paid out of local rates for widening streets, and so on.

From the immediate business angle of course, which takes short views, there is no particular reason why we should; the cashier is concerned with the bill, and no more than the bill. But in any scientific analysis of costs these factors could no more be left out than the cost of the hangars out of an air company's balance-sheet. And if they were included it might not be found that the motor had cheapened transport much.

Moreover, a surplus of available transport means waste-idle machines, labour paid without full yield, empty coaches; the industry appears to be running to maximum, but it is really tending more towards minimum efficiency. Somebody has to pay the eventual losses.

These methods, of course, cannot go on forever. Sooner or later somebody else whispers the magic word rationalisation. Rival boards no longer bite thumbs at each other, but meet and even dine. The superfluous tissue is cut out, and health is restored.

It is fairly evident that something of that kind will be the outcome of the present traffic fight. Competition seldom lasts long after two sides have taken each other's measure; it is too expensive.

The transport trade is probably not ready yet for rationalisation. It is still in too fluid a state, and there are unexplored possibilities of developing traffic. But when railways and motors have fully ascertained each other's strong and weak points, and have sized up how much the air is likely to count commercially, there will be a short pause for breath and the parties will come to terms. And in the concordat that follows, the railways, as the larger and more effectively organised industry, will probably be the dominant partner.—A. Wyatt Tilby, in “The Evening Standard.”