HOLIDAY TRAIN SERVICES (CUTS) (Hansard, 24 June 1947)

§ Mr. Shurmer (Birmingham, Sparkbrook)
I realise that the hour is rather late, but unfortunately the matter I want to raise cannot wait. But for having lost the Adjournment a few weeks ago I would be prepared to postpone this opportunity and chance my luck again. In reply to a Question I put to the Minister of Transport on 28th May about the cut in holiday train services which was to begin on 10th June and continue until 5th October, the right hon Gentleman said that during this period coal stocks must be built up by every economy that could reasonably be made. I entirely agree, but I do not agree that this should be done at the expense of the workers and their families, many of whom for the first time in their working lives have secured holidays with pay and are looking forward to taking their families away for a short but well-earned holiday. I shall be told that the cut is already in operation, and that nothing can be done. Surely that cannot be true. I am not prepared to stand for that. The railway companies could easily put on extra trains at any time. It is not a question of rolling stock. The railway companies made this statement only a few weeks ago: The railways anticipate a record holiday traffic this summer. But all hopes of providing the public with any better facilities 401 than last year were shattered when, in accordance with a decision of the Cabinet Fuel Committee, the Minister of Transport directed that, in order to save coal, the summer time-table service must be reduced by 10 per cent. As compared with 1046. With fewer trains for more passengers, the difficulties experienced last year in regulating the crowds at stations will be greatly increased. It is also said that it means that only a limited number of trains can be put on. It was planned to put on extra expresses this season. I wonder whether the Minister was aware, before he made this Order, that there are 33,000,000 people in the United Kingdom who can, this year enjoy holidays with pay.
Many hon. Members will know the difficulties at holiday times, and the crush and scramble there was to get away in prewar times, when there were far fewer people taking holidays and plenty of special trains. What will it mean this year, with this cut in operation? What chance will people have to get away for a time? We are appealing to people for increased production, and at the same time we are preventing them getting away for a well-earned rest and from the rush and bustle and smoke of the crowded cities. I am sure we should reap the benefit in increased production if the worker had a chance to escape from these conditions. We all know the many privations people are called upon to endure which for a time cannot be avoided, but I am sure the cut in holiday trains need not have been made. If it were a question of millions of tons of coal, one would realise the necessity of conserving that amount, but the cut will amount only to 250,000 tons of coal or less than one day's production.
It is not the Minister of Transport who ought to be in the dock, but the Minister of Fuel and Power. He ought to be there, for issuing an order which prevented the running of extra holiday trains. We are told we need to build up a stock of 15 million tons for the winter. We have already, with 17 weeks to go, nearly 8½ million in stock, and the position of the mining industry improves week by week and there is every sign of an increase in coal production. In addition, 22,000 more men have entered the industry since the decision was taken. Surely the Minister can risk less than one day's coal production to give a little break to the war weary ? For many years I have lived in slums among thousands of the working 402 class, and I have known their lives and homes for 26 or 27 years. I know many are war weary and austerity weary, and now they are to be holiday weary when for the first time in their lives they have the chance to go away. This year, seaside and other holiday resorts have got back near to normal accommodation. Holiday camps are being opened for the first time, all in readiness to cope with the increase in holidays-with-pay. What will be the position with this cut in operation? Unless people are lucky and have cars many will be left behind. I have a car and I can take my wife on holiday, but I am conscious that poor people who have not been able to get cars of their own stand a good chance of being left behind to stay at home in drab surroundings.
Let us see what the position means in extra coal production. Take 80 days in July, August and September. 350 tons a day from 817 pits would mean less than half a ton per pit per day. Has anyone at the Ministry gone into that? I ask the Minister seriously to consider what the after-effects of this train cut will have, not only on production, but on the weary housewife who needs a change from the everyday humdrum existence of home life; and on the children too, many of whom very seldom get a chance of going to the seaside and some of whom are looking forward for the first time in their lives to having one. I urge the Minister not to get up and tell me that it is too late now, but to realise that there is a chance of giving the railways an opportunity of putting extra trains on so that during July and August people can go away for a holiday. I urge the Minister of Transport to take a chance so that these people can have a holiday and to put on extra trains. I feel confident that the workers will be prepared to recognise that some concession has been given them to get a holiday.

§ Squadron-Leader E. Kinghorn (Great Yarmouth)
I would like to add my voice to that of the hon. Member who has just made such a well documented speech on, the cuts in railway services. I speak, as a Member for a seaside resort—from the receiving end. The hon. Member for Sparkbrook (Mr. Shurmer) has given the case very well from the point of view of the people who come from inland towns to have a few days' recovery every year at our seaside resorts. From the point of view of my own constituency, this is no 403 luxury. It is the continuation of the normal economic life of the constituency. In my constituency there are hotels that had been requisitioned during the war. They have been refurbished by grants from the Board of Trade and this year they were planning to get into their stride. Many people run hotels and workers in them have been looking forward to having the normal peacetime holiday traffic and have been hoping to make this holiday season recoup, hardly what they lost during the war, but the loss they have to face during the long winter months when they are preparing for the rush of visitors during the holiday season. Then there are the boarding houses, in which people get ready the rooms they do not use themselves in preparation for the rush.
Our working people are very much concerned in this. Their ordinary jobs rely on the holiday traffic. Even the houses of a great many normal working people in the town which I represent are made over so that in the holiday months they can put up a number of working people. It is part of the economic life of the town, and if they work for wages during the winter months they look forward to the weeks of summer when they can do extra work to make a bit of money to tide them over the winter. It is not a luxury to take a holiday. Any specialist on industrial psychology and health knows very well, and has proved time and time again, that working men and women must have periods of rest, of complete change from their industrial surroundings, which they normally get in seaside resorts. It is just at the time of year when these savage cuts are operating that they take their holidays. I suffered myself from this today when I found that the train I wished to catch was not running. It is possible for stationmasters to put on extra trains even if schedules are arranged. I ask the Parliamentary Secretary to consider that holidays are no luxuries, especially in towns like Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Brighton, where people expect to make their living from the holiday traffic.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. G. R. Strauss)
My hon. Friends, the members for Sparkbrook (Mr. Shurmer) and Great Yarmouth (Squadron-Leader Kinghorn), have put very forcibly the inconvenience 404 which is undoubtedly going to arise and affect a considerable number of people during the coming months as a result of the cuts in railway services which have been decided by the Government. I can assure my hon. Friends that nobody regrets this decision more than we do, but we have been forced to the conclusion that in the national interest it is essential to make some saving during the summer in the coal consumption of the railway companies. Might I just give my hon. Friends and the House one or two facts. The decision was arrived at a little time ago to make a cut of 4 per cent in railway running during the summer months. That is not a large percentage, but it will save 10,000 tons a week and about 250,000 tons altogether. It is impossible, or anyhow most undesirable, to make any cut in our freight trains. It is also undesirable to make any cut in the peak hour trains when people in already overcrowded conditions are coming into or leaving London and other large cities. To make the necessary cut in train mileage it was therefore necessary to reduce the remaining railway services, namely, the "off peak" suburban trains and the longdistance trains.
That decision will principally affect holiday traffic. There is to be a cut of 10 per cent. in these long-distance trains and "off peak" suburban trains. The railway companies however have been at great pains to make these cuts where they will least inconvenience the public. They have in fact cut a great many "off peak" suburban trains so as to make the holiday trains as frequent as possible. To consider the reduction in proper proportions we must remember that the cut will be about 10 per cent. on last year's service but there will be the same number of trains running as in 1945 and about 10 per cent. more than in 1940. I say frankly that we have no indication whether summer traffic will be larger this year' or not. Last year the traffic was substantially below the year before, and up to May of this year there was a steep drop indeed in passenger traffic on the railways; not only during the particularly cold weather of last winter, but up to early May. The drop amounted to 20 to 25 per cent. But that of course does not mean that there will be a drop during the coming summer holiday months.

§ Mr. Shurmer
I do not think the hon. Gentleman ought to mislead the House. 405 He knows full well that in 1944 the extra passengers were troops, and they are not travelling now.

§ Mr. Strauss
I can assure my hon. Friend that he is mistaken. There was a drop in ordinary monthly season tickets—

§ Mr. Shurmer
In season tickets?

§ Mr. Strauss
No. I am sorry. I meant in monthly return tickets used by the ordinary visitor to holiday resorts for his return journey. There may be more holiday makers this year—it is anybody's guess. There may be a fall. But every effort will be made within the resources of the railway companies, and within the overriding condition that the companies must cut their coal consumption by 250,000 tons, to relieve congestion where it is bad. I would furthermore remind the House that although there is a complete embargo on the running of special trains, there is no embargo on relief trains, and relief trains will be run wherever possible within the limitation that the railway companies must save this amount of coal.
There is no doubt that inconvenience and discomfort to many holiday makers will result. It is inevitable. I regret this very much, particularly.as I fully endorse my hon. Friend's view that it is highly desirable, in the interests of the individuals concerned and the national economy, that our people should take their holidays this year. They deserve and need their holidays, and it will be good for the national productive effort that they should take their holidays. It 406 is also desirable that they should be able to travel to and from the various resorts where they will take their holidays in the maximum comfort. But I am afraid that it will not be possible for all of them to do so. Great efforts have been made to effect a measure of staggering; in particular to get holidays starting in the middle of the week instead of at the weekend, but we have had no success. During certain rush periods of the summer, bad travelling conditions will therefore be unavoidable. But the over-riding consideration must be the need to accumulate coal stocks for the winter. It is all very well for the hon. Member to say that only 250,000 tons are involved, but that is really a large tonnage, and if we can save that amount for the winter it will be very well worth doing.
I say, in conclusion, we greally legret the necessity for cutting the summer train service, but it has been forced upon us by national conditions. Every effort has been made, and great care taken, by the railway companies to effect the cuts so as to inflict the minimum of hardship. But it is impossible to avoid it altogether. One can only offer this consolation to those who will suffer—they will, know when they have to travel in discomfort. that their sacrifice is directly contributing to the conservation of coal for domestic and industrial needs next winter. And that objective, I am sure they will agree, must in the national interest have number one priority.