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Bo
(a) black-out conditions will continue;
(e) air raid alarms and interruption and bombing damage
will continue on the recent scale;
(f) a growing shortage of labour, with consequent need
to use it as economically as possible;
(g) increasing need for the quickest possible turn-round
of shipping.
On the above assum tions the Railway Executive Committee have submitted for consideration a development programme estimated to cost £10 millions, spread over the next two years.
The works would be directed to adapting the lay- ou of the lines to a wartime economy, increasing the capacity of routes avoiding London and other bottlenecks and the exchange points and marshalling yards at which congestion and delay have been especially apparent.
The post-war value of the works is necessarily dependent largely on the amount of traffic then requiring to be carried
some of the works by rail and is, therefore, problematical;
40
are not likely to have much, if any, post-war value, but others may to permanent and valuable improvements to the railway system. The lay-out and standard of construction of the works would of course, be determined solely by war-time needs.
5.
Before proceeding to eexamination of these proposals in detail I should be glad to have the views of the Lord President's Committee upon the conditions for which I should plan as regards the railways and the validity of the assumptions set out above as to the probable future trend of traffic.
10th January, 1941,
Ministry of Transporte
-2-
(Intld).
J.T.C. M-B.
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