Page:The Reshaping of British Railways (Beeching Report).pdf/51

 The meaning of 'turn-round time' needs to be explained, otherwise it is a misleading expression. It is the average time from loading to reloading for all wagons, derived by dividing the total number of wagon days per year by the total number of wagon loadings per year. Therefore, high turn-round time may well indicate high wagon capacity relative to the availability of traffic rather than slowness of movement. That this is so is fairly evident from the Table. Turn-round time rose from 9·45 days in 1946 to 12·51 days in 1962, but the actual speed of movement of wagons almost certainly increased. Far more striking is the fluctuation between 1957 and 1958. There is no reason to suppose that speed of movement dropped in 1958, but there was a fall in the economy and rail traffic fell by 12 per cent. As a result, turn-round time rose by an exactly similar amount.

Opinion has varied from time to time as to the optimum size of the wagon fleet, but it has now been decided, quite apart from the intolerably high cost of a fleet of the present size, that it is far bigger than it needs to be for the traffic carried with any regularity throughout the year. Figures which support this view are given below:—

All traffic

Merchandise only

Coal and other minerals only

Net ton miles (000's) 17,590,315 5,533,160 12,031,155 Average number of wagons 944,270 433,438 510,832 Net ton miles per wagon: (a) per annum (b) per week.. 18,628 12,812 23,564 358 246 453 Average wagon load (tons) 7.9 4.1 13.5 Loaded wagon miles per week 45 60 33

Type of wagon or container

Number at end 1961

Turn-round time (available stock)

Terminal time

Movement time

Loaded Empty

Remainder

Remainder expressed as a percentage of movement and terminal time

days days days days days Wagons Open goods 232,416 13.4 4.5 1.9 0.6 6.4 91.5 Covered goods 140,043 5-8 2.9 1.4 0.4 1.1 23.4 Mineral 508,816 10.6 3-7 1.7 1.2 4.0 60-6 Steel carrying 55,279 11-7 4.7 1.9 1.5 3-6 44.4 Others (cattle) 4,989 20-2 2.0 2.0 3.0 13.2 188.6 Containers Open. 7,309 32.0 6.4 1.6 1.0. 23.0 255.5 Covered 18,172 10-8 4.3 1.4 0-7 4.4 68.7 Others 22,815 13-8 4.1 1.4 1-0 7.3 112.3