ABSTRACT
In 1973 about half the railways' freight revenue came from coal and oil, which together produced over £90 million. The Central Electricity Generating Board has said that a coal burn of up to 95 million tons would be practicable in the early 1980s. During 1973, 20 million tons of coal was consumed in smokeless fuel plants and by the general industrial and service sector. During 1973 the railways carried 32½ million tons of general industrial and domestic coal. Before the jump in oil prices the Corporation believed that the quantity of coal used per ton of steel would decline from the level of 0·6 tons to around 0·5 tons in 1981, because of the scrapping of old and inefficient blast furnaces. However a further large rise in the price of crude oil might well lead to stresses and strains with which even Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries would find it difficult to cope.
