Railways and roads complement each other much more than other modes of transport and are mutually helpful.
The bus and lorry companies can out-compete the railways in attracting passengers as well as good traffic. Motor transport can provide certain services that the railways can never provide, such as door-to-door collection and delivery, highly flexible timetable, speedy transport, etc. These advantages of road transport have made this form of transport prevalent among the mercantile community, “ particularly for less than wagon load consignments.” According to David Hughes, “Road delivery has in many instances halved our cost and slashed delivery time. Yet, there is also another potent advantage of road over rail delivery: the absence of pilferage.
No loss, no ill-will, and no unduly expensive method of packing are involved.” According to Hughes, “ road transport companies are taking up as much 80 to 90 percent of the small parcel traffic in South India.” While the transport of goods by rail is full of complaints such as denial of wagon facilities, long delays in booking, the unconsciously long time taken in transportation, loss through pilferage, and so on, transport of goods by road is speedier, suffers less from pilferage and has the advantages of direct delivery from door to door.
While speaking about the advantages of road transport, the Masani Committee emphasized: “Speed is of vital importance in a developing economy, and this is where road transport which is about three times as fast as rail transport will inevitably play a far greater role than at any time in the past and will have to be developed on a large scale.”
The Superiority of the road system also arises from the fact that railways have to work against certain inherent disadvantages. For instance, the railways have to accept all kinds of traffic and can never choose between traffic as the road system can do. They have to move some essential commodities on a priority basis. They have to give special concession rates for foodgrains, cement, coal, fertilizer, and other commodities that can bear only low freight.
For example, the Railways had to incur huge losses because of the large-scale movement of food grains and fodder to famine areas. This traffic was moved by canceling several passenger services and sacrificing a considerable amount of high-rated general traffic. Finally, the railways have to serve vital and national needs even at a loss. This is when they have to construct strategic lines and carry such essential goods as foodgrains, fertilizers, etc., at concessional rates. Thus, being a public utility undertaking, the railways have to bear the heavy loss (over ₹ 2,800 crores in 1996-97) in running unremunerative lines, on suburban and other traffic, on the movement of low rated freight cargo, and loss due to freight concessions on export trade, etc. All these facts clearly prove that the railways and roadways can never operate on an equal footing and that railways are vulnerable.
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