ROAD AND RAIL
SIR,—Mr. Raymond Postgate's comments on rail- way catering in your issue of August 5 must be left to others to judge.
But he is wrong in his facts when he tries to take the sting out of these by asserting that the railways are handicapped by having to pay for the track whereas roads are provided and main- tained at the cost of the Government.
May I quote from the recently issued report on British Railways by the non-party House of Com- mons Select Committee on Nationalised Industries:
401. The argument that railways should be relieved of the track costs is based upon the
belief that the burden of them is unfair when
viewed in the context of the railways' com- petition with road users. But in fact the road
user pays each year in taxes for the use of his vehicle and its fuel considerably more than the annual cost of road maintenance, signalling and construction.
402. Your Committee do not consider that there is a case on grounds of fair competition to relieve the railways of track costs.
Actually, in the current financial year road users will pay over £600 million in fuel tax, licence duties and purchase tax. Against this, total expenditure on roads will be less than £200 million and the Govern- ment will provide no more than £120 million.— Yours faithfully,
M. FRANCIS
Information Officer British Road Federation Limited, 26 Manchester Square, WI
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