ABSTRACT
The granting of road powers to Britain's railway companies was the subject of heated debate and several government inquiries during the 1920s and 1930s. The railway companies' case was that road transport's power of competition rested largely on the subsidy it received, in respect of track costs, from the rest of the community. Each of the railway companies contributed a quarter of the purchase price and each therefore participated in the management of the haulage firms. The railway companies had a substantial interest in long-distance household removals and looked forward to an increase in rail removals as a result of the new arrangement with James Pickfords. The railways collected some useful business in this way, but their gain was their subsidiaries' loss. Suttons, purchased by the railways in 1935, specialised in packed parcels and suffered the loss of several thousand pounds' worth of revenue as a result of the railways' actions.
