ROAD versus RAIL • [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—In a footnote to' my letter Colonel Young says : "An estimate of the average cost of stopping a passenger train is, of course, quite useless for the purpose in view." But in his article (page 793), he asked : " Do the railways know the average cost of stopping and restarting a passenger train or a
goods train ? " Again, he says that my reference to the cost of service is "irrelevant." But he had written : "the price Charged, to us, directly or indirectly, for,our transportation must in the long run bear a Close relation to the cost of that transportation."
Yesterday morning I observed a steam traction engine drawing water, without payment, from our famous Hobson's Conduit. The engine weighed 13 tons, 18 cwt. ; it drew three trailers with a total permitted weight of 17 tons 10 cwt., and a two-wheeled cart. Every wheel had hard tyres. For this railway train let loose in our streets, with a total weight of nearly 32 tons, the total taxation payable was 116 10s. per quarter. I agree with Colonel Young that the Royal Com- mission's proposal to raise the licence duty to 1120 is halt- ing." At 20s. per cwt. the duty would work out at 1630 a year, and even this would be quite inadequate. Such road trains should be prohibited altogether. No motor vehicles weighing more than 2 tons unladen should be allowed without pneumatic tyres. How this Juggernaut got through the streets of Cambridge I cannot imagine ; it must have stopped
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