ABSTRACT
Compare the ease with which a road transport service can be inaugurated to the expensive permanent way, the cuttings, tunnellings and embankments, the elaborate signalling. In road transport rates, the main element is the cost of the particular service. Hence it may be said that the economic principle underlying the fixation of road rates and fares is quite different to that which is the basis of railway charging. In theoretical discussion a railway is considered to be a monopoly which is able to charge differential prices. It may be, however, that the economies of large-scale working offset, at least in part, the rise in charges, so that fares are not unduly raised. It is essential that road transport fares should be so arranged in practice that the method of charging is simple and clear. In Scotland, it has been laid down that tramways should be excluded from rate aid, and the fares charged are fixed with this end in view.
