THE ECONOMICS OF TRANSPORT
[To the Editor of TnE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. T. C. Owtram in the letter which you published last week has, I think, misunderstood the argument in my review of Mr. Bonavia's Economics of Transport.
If the most economical use is to be made of road and rail facilities, each unit of transport should be carried on that system, on which the extra cost involved is lowest. I agree, of course, that by the taxation of road transport the road hauliers may be forced to charge prices which include their full social costs of upkeep of permanent way, &e. But if, as is probably true, such overhead costs are higher for rail than for road transport, the charges made by the two systems in conditions of fair competition will not be in proportion to the extra cost involved in diverting traffic on to each system, and much traffic may be taken by road which should be
carried by rail.—I am, yours faithfully, J. E. MEADE.
Hertford College, Oxford.
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