Page:The Reshaping of British Railways (Beeching Report).pdf/83

 consistent pattern, although wagon loading is clearly linked with terminal conditionsin that:—

Low wagon loading is generally found when road conveyance features at one end of the transit. For road/road and road/station transits, the average wagon loads over all distances are only 2·2 and 3·1 tons respectively.

Where private siding is one of the terminal conditions this is generally associated with high average wagon loading.

Terminal Conditions and Distance

The pattern of traffic by transit distance, in conjunction with terminal conditions, can also be seen from Table IV. Almost three-quarters of the tonnage falls into the siding/dock and siding/siding combinations of terminal conditions. Over one-half of the siding/dock traffic passes over distances of 25 miles or less, whilst about one-third of the siding/siding traffic is in the same range. Thereafter there is a fairly even spread of siding/siding traffic up to 200 miles. For other combinations of terminal conditions there is some concentration of traffic between 51 and 200 miles; the general pattern is summarised below in Table No. 22:

Table No. 22

Transit distance (miles) Siding/Siding Dock/Siding Other terminal conditions Total

'000 tons

1-25 292·1  174·0  48·3  514·3

26-50 200·5  38·9  62·5  301·9

51-100 207·9  23·6  135·4  366·9

101-200 188·0  15·5  166·0  369·5

201-300 46·9  3·3  55·1  105·3

301 and over 10·6  0·9  26·0  36·5

946·0 256·3  493·1  1,695·4

Distance and Wagon Loading

Table VI shows the distribution of traffic by distance and wagon loading, without regard to terminal conditions, in terms of number of wagons. Taking all distances, the number of wagons employed carrying loads of 2 tons and under is almost as great as the number of wagons carrying loads of 12-16 tons. Yet the tonnages conveyed are in the ratio of 1 : 13, viz.:—

Wagons Tons

Wagon loading

Up to 2 tons 25,400  29,900

Over 12 and up to 16 tons 29,900  400,500