Page:The Reshaping of British Railways (Beeching Report).pdf/75

 Traffic Survey—April 1961

During the survey of freight traffic in April 1961, the opportunity was taken to record the volume of freight traffic dealt with at the stations which forwarded and received full wagon loads during that week. The results are of some interest compared with the very much more extensive record represented by Tables Nos. 6 to 9 of this Appendix. They are also a pointer to the extent to which many stations deal with no full load traffic at all, for quite considerable periods.

Traffic was distributed as under:—

Tons ('000) Number of stations Minerals and merchandise Forwarded 190 2,067 Received 370 .. 2,990 Cool class Received 372 3,124

In all, 4,371 stations were concerned in the despatch and receipt of 932,000 tons of traffic.

Tons ('000) Number of stations Minerals and merchandise Forwarded 1,695 2,871 Received 1,695 3,749 Coal class Received 2,737 3,590

In all, 4,995 stations and associated private sidings were concerned in the despatch and receipt of 4·4 m. tons of traffic.

Even after making allowance for the fact that the record covered only one week, and for seasonal variations, a striking feature of the analysis was the number of stations which dealt with no freight traffic. There is no doubt that all stations play some part at some period of the year, but it is reasonable to assume that a large proportion of them only receive and forward traffic intermittently.

The eight tables which follow show the participation, firstly, of stations alone and, secondly, of stations including the private sidings associated with them.