BR shows Europe the container way:
THEY'LL never do it, cynics said, when BR spokesmen kept on bravely insisting some dark years back that this country was going to regain the Western European railway leadership. Platefuls of past words are beginning to line up for the Jeremiahs. Some of the less publicised technological advances—for example, in signalling systems—may be escaping them, but at least they cannot have missed BR's justifiably trumpeted climb this spring to top Western world place for aggregate daily high speed by long-distance passenger trains.

They must not be allowed to overlook probably a much greater BR achievement. In development of modern high-capacity traffic by rail, BR are not only showing the rest of Europe the way. Other countries are beginning to copy the BR method. What is more, they are inviting BR to lay the groundwork .of an international project that is immensely significant to the long-term survival of European railways in general.

BR's Harwich-Zeebrugge ISO container service, planned to start late next year, is the first large-scale move towards establishment of an integrated international service, using ISO standard 8ft by 8 ft profile containers. It may project beyond the Iron Curtain into Czechoslovakia and possibly Hungary, as well as throughout Western Europe. The prospect is an international network of container train services running regularly between nominated rail-road transfer centres in each of the participant countries. These centres would, of course, be in the principal industrial areas. BR envisage British depots at London (Stratford), Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow, with the likely addition of one strategically sited to cover South Wales and the South-West. All would have their own customs clearance arrangements. Depots promoted by other bodies could, presumably, be integrated with the BR network. For example, the Croydon Chamber of Commerce is taking the lead in a move to establish a South London freight depot with its own customs facilities which would be active in container traffic; BR were represented at a recent Croydon meeting of interested parties who agreed to put up £10,000 initially for the formation of a management consortium, with study of possible depot sites in Bermondsey and parts of Surrey as its immediate objective.

Given maximum transit efficiency - which is why so much emphasis is laid. on ship turnrounds in the Harwich-Zeebrugge scheme, described elsewhere in this issue—the idea promises international door-to-door freight movement at highly competitive rates which should tap a big potential of new rail traffic. The annual growth rate of the Harwich-Zeebrugge flow, for example, has been assessed at 6 per cent. But with a 30ft-long container costing about £1,000 and having a life expectation of only 5-7 years, a high utilisation factor is crucial. Of necessity, therefore, this is likely to become the most highly-organised European