ABSTRACT
The new Ministry of Transport took one obvious step to try to relieve ports and railway stations. Road transport was only too happy to take some of the burden from railways, but it, had problems. The new Ministry of Transport took one obvious step to try to relieve ports and railway stations. They provided some 600 surplus army lorries to the major ports and about 1300 to the railways to help out. There was no way in which road transport could replace the railways, at this stage, as the main carrier. The new large railway companies were giants compared with the pygmies of the road haulage world and had enormous resources at their disposal. The railways proposed to charge their standard railway rates as authorized by the Railways Act, 1921, subject to certain exclusions. The railways, who may already have been negotiating with some traders for road haulage on the basis of their railway rates, saw no immediate way forward.
