Proc. Instn Civ. Surface transport history in the UK: Engrs Transp., 1998, 129, Feb., analysis and projections 14 ± 19 M. V. Lowson Paper 11548 Written discussion closes 31 July & A comparative analysis is given of the the major con¯uences of motorways in the UK, 1998 history of the three main forms of surface between the main east±west M4 and the north± transport in the UK: the canal, railway, south M5, was constructed around 10 miles and car/road systems. There are common north and west of the centre of Bristol. At the features in each of these systems, in terms same time Bristol Parkway station was opened, of growth, technology utilization, and less than a mile from the M4 corridor. The con- eventual decline. The analysis suggests sequence was dramatic. Development in the that the era of dominance of surface trans- centre of Bristol ceased, and new oces, shop- port by the automobile is now drawing to ping areas and residential estates opened in an end, and that it is reasonable to expect profusion to the north, totally changing the a new form of transport to come into being, shape and nature of the city. involving new vehicles matched to a new 4. The car has also provided the great com- infrastructure, and designed to meet new mercial dynamic of the modern era. Analysis requirements, notably the issues of suggests that almost the whole of the di€erence sustainability. between the British and German economies in recent years can be explained in terms of the Keywords: history; transport planning; di€erence in the strength of the automotive waterways and canals sector. 5. Two hundred years ago canals gave rise Introduction to the ®rst great revolution in transport cap- It is well known that transport is one of the ability. The canal provided the backbone of the crucial enabling technologies for civilisation, industrial revolution giving, for the ®rst time, and controls the way in which a society e€ective and low cost transport both to get raw develops. Looking back to the last century, the materials to the place of manufacture, and to train was the dominant means of surface trans- transport the resulting goods throughout the port. The train shaped the whole development UK. The Bridgewater canal, the ®rst of the era, of Britain during Victorian times. Towns which halved the cost of coal in Manchester. The had an early connection to the railway network network of canals in Birmingham was one of grew at great pace, while towns without train the main driving forces for its growth at that connections, whether by accident or design, time. Canals were also an enormous ®nancial remained as backwaters. The form of town and opportunity, eagerly subscribed to by private city which developed was also controlled by the individuals despite considerable risk. This, of con®guration of the railway network. The train course, was at a time investors could reap the also provided some of the largest industrial and full bene®t of their risk-taking. business opportunities of the age. 6. Thus, particularly in modern industrial 2. In the present century, it has been the car societies, transport technology has had the which has provided the great force for social dominating e€ect on development. This paper change. Cities, towns, and villages have been seeks to provide a historical analysis and com- altered beyond recognition by the impact of the parison of these technologies, and draw some car, and the road network which supports it. conclusions about possible future trends. For Features of present-day living such as out-of- convenience, the UK has been taken as the town shopping centres or the repopulation of basis for the study. villages, have only been possible because of the car and the associated road system, which is a dominant feature of the urban landscape. Build rates 3. An interesting example of the e€ect of 7. The approach taken in the present paper transport technologies is Brunel's London to is to analyse and compare build rates of the Bristol line, in which he chose the more north- various forms of surface transport which have erly route as opposed to the more obvious direc- emerged in the UK. No means of transport can tion through Marlborough. Swindon, created by be used until it is built. After it is built its Brunel to service the line, retains its dominance utilization will normally increase towards a over towns to the south to the present day. limit set by the scale of the infrastructure. Martin V. Lowson, Brunel's line and the A4 trunk road were both Thus build rate provides a measure of the most Advanced Transport main arteries leading to the heart of Bristol. In basic driving parameter in the development of Group, University the 1960s, largely as a result of chance, one of a transport system. It has the further major of Bristol 14 SURFACE TRANSPORT HISTORY IN THE UK bene®t that relevant data are readily available, Table 1. Build rate in kilometres/ten years although not necessarily in directly comparable forms. For modern types of transport, data are Year Canals Railways Trunk roads Motorways available in tables of government statistics.1 Good statistics are also available from the 1760 93 reports of the Board of Trade in Victorian 1770 876 times. In earlier times the best data are avail- 1780 355 able from parliamentary records of approvals 1790 164 of schemes. The various forms of statistic are 1800 1660 not directly comparable, but do provide a su- 1810 251 1820 277 ciently good record to allow conclusions to be 1830 172 157 drawn. 1840 30 2233 8. The basic data developed are shown in 1850 7407 Table 1 and plotted in Fig. 1. These give the 1860 4806 build rates of the three principal forms of 1870 6955 surface transport: canal, railway, and car/road. 1880 3502 In each case the measure is one of the length of 1890 2767 infrastructure required to support the system. 1900 2133 For canals this has been taken as the length of 1910 1717 canal. For railways the length of track has been 1920 920 1930 145 taken as the proper scale. For cars it is some- 1940 0 4953 what more dicult to de®ne a clear measure, 1950 8322 but for reasons which will be argued in more 1960 305 153 detail later, the statistic chosen is the length of 1970 883 904 trunk road and motorway. 1980 486 1498 9. In each case the build rates have been 1990 717 515 estimated over a ten-year period. Entries in 2000 Table 1 give the actual length of build achieved in the previous ten years. In Fig. 1, these data have been non-dimensionalized against the approved via parliamentary bills. The date of peak rate for each form of transport, to allow a these bills is known, with the greatest peak, more direct graphical comparison. `canal mania', in 1793. Canals were not opened immediately on passage of the bill, since ®rst Canals they had to be constructed. Typical rates of 10. The ®rst set of data refers to canals. construction were around 6 miles per year. This has been obtained courtesy of Mr R. A. Dates of opening of canals are not necessarily Jamieson, Archivist at the National Waterways known in all cases. Further, many of the canals Museum, Gloucester. In this case the data are were opened in sections, so that it would on the lengths of canals (actually built) require a considerable amount of detailed

Trevithick Daimler 1·0

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historical research to establish the ®rst time of in 1804 to ful®l a bet, although when it arrived availability of the whole canal system. For the at its destination (Penderyn near Merthyr purposes of the present analysis the timing of Tyd®l) it was left there to act as a stationary parliamentary approvals gives a reasonable engine. The full exploitation of the steam loco- estimate of build rate. motive required the invention of the rolled 11. Although a canal was built in Lincoln- wrought iron rails by John Birkinshaw in 1820. shire in Roman times, canals in Britain were a Despite this, many railways built at that time relatively late development compared with continued to use plate track on which wagons continental Europe, where the Milan Grand could also run. In any case, locomotive tech- Canal was built in 1209, and the ®rst lock in nology was not suciently developed to o€er the Netherlands in 1253 (although the ®rst lock reliable transport of passengers. Horses were in China was recorded in 983). There was some normally used for passenger transport on the canal building in the UK later than shown in Stockton and Darlington railway (opened in the ®gure, notably the Manchester ship canal, 1825) despite the availability of George but this does not in¯uence the general con- Stephenson's `Locomotion'. Winding engines clusions which can be drawn from the main o€ered another alternative technology. Thus bulk of the data, dominated by the boom years railways are normally taken as commencing in of canals in the UK between 1760 and 1830. 1830 with the opening of the Liverpool to 12. The canal ®gures have many points of Manchester railway, using Stephenson's interest. The double peak in build rate is the Rocket. This was the ®rst substantial railway most striking feature of the curve. In fact the to rely completely on steam power, and also the two peaks correspond to rather di€erent tech- ®rst to depend for a signi®cant portion of its nologies of canal building. The ®rst corre- earnings on the carriage of passengers. sponds to the level James Brindley canals 15. It is interesting that in the case of the which largely conformed to the contours of the railway both the track system and the vehicle land. This was done in order to avoid locks, came about almost simultaneously, so that a which add to cost and also lead to operational full transport system technology was available diculties, the key issue being the supply of from the start. However this technology water for lock operation. Canals built during required considerable development. Early the second peak of activity attacked the steam engines were only able to run e€ectively problem more directly, cutting straight through on the ¯at. A 1 in 70 gradient at Camden Town the landscape, with complex assemblages of required the assistance of a winding engine locks, holding pounds, and a plethora of other until 1844.2 Despite these limitations railways canal technologies. attracted considerable support, leading to 13. Canal boats also saw development. `railway mania'. In 1846 219 Acts of Parliament Early canals more closely resembled rivers, and authorized 4538 miles of new line at a capital so were suited to craft little di€erent to those value of £133 million. (Not all of these were used on rivers. Indeed, the ®rst canals were built.) river navigations. Later canals, dominated by 16. The rate of growth of railways is also straight sections and locks, necessitated di€er- shown in Fig. 1, based on data from Mitchell,3 ent forms of boat. The 7-foot wide narrow boat, for dates before 1900, and from Reference 1 designed to match the standard lock and bridge after 1900. In both cases the data correspond to gauge of 7 ft 6 in, had reached a re®ned state actual lengths of track available for use based by the time of the second wave of canal build- on an interpretation of the reports of the Board ing. Thus it was the canal system as a wholeÐ of Trade. These data have been used to provide canal and boatÐwhich had to be optimized to an estimate of the construction rate in ten-year provide a truly e€ective means of transport. periods. It is intriguing that again the rate of The historical evidence shows that this optimi- growth shows a double peak. The ®rst corre- zation process took around 30 years. sponds to the `railway mania' of the 1840s. The second peak does not appear to correspond to Railways any particular event, but examination of 14. The key technology which gave rise to railway technology does suggest reasons why the railway was the invention of the high this may have come about. Early steam engines pressure steam engine by Richard Trevithick were notoriously dangerous. More than 100 in about 1800. The earlier atmospheric steam people were killed by boiler explosions during engines invented by James Watt, and ®nally the early part of the railway era. Looking at built in 1776, had inadequate power:weight some of the designs, featuring, for example, ratio to have any real use for surface transport, square pressure vessels, it is evident that the beyond that of a winding engine. Trevithick's technology took some time to mature. Early ®rst attempt to use his new engine for transport locomotives show a wide variety of experimen- was on the road in 1801, but this was a failure tation. By the 1870s the locomotives emerging as an e€ective transport system. Trevithick's were recognizably the same in general form as steam locomotive successfully ran on iron rails those still in operation in the 1950s. 16 SURFACE TRANSPORT HISTORY IN THE UK

17. As in the case of canals the major con- of the transport infrastructure, again over a struction period of the railways was over in period of just about 50 years (1945±1995). about 50 years, from 1830 to 1880. However, after 1880, railway building in Britain did not entirely stop. A residual level of railway con- Discussion struction continued right up to 1940. This is 23. Inevitably any discussion of these perhaps a little surprising. The invention of the issues is considerably simpli®ed. For example, railway for all practical purposes stopped canal the move from canal to railway was dominated building dead. But this was not the case for the by the change of carriage in freight, whereas impact of the next form of transportÐthe car. the move from railway to car depended far more on the carriage of passengers. No dis- Cars cussion has been presented of the development 18. The key technology for the car is now of the road/turnpike. This is because their recognized as the invention of the high speed history has depended far more on local issues petrol engine by Gottlieb Daimler, patented in than national trends. Further, the gap in 1885. This was largely based on the gas development between railway and road was engines developed by Nikolaus Otto (1867). partially ®lled by the tram. The tram repre- Surprisingly in retrospect, internal combustion sents an intermediate form of transport, but engines were not widely used for transportation had a rather short lifespan in historical terms. in the early days. Bunch and Hellemans4 point The existence of the tram during the early part out that, in 1900, of 4192 cars manufactured in of the present century is not believed to a€ect the US, 1681 were equipped with a steam the basic arguments presented. engine, 1575 with an electric motor, and only 24. In each case the data show that the full 936 with an internal combustion engine. development of a transport technology takes 19. Trevithick had run a steam carriage on about 50 years. An initial boom occurs as the roads in 1801, and in 1831 a steam-powered new ideas come into being, followed by a ten-seat bus ran between London and Stratford. second period where ideas both in technology The consequence was legislation, sponsored by and in operation have matured, and the full supporters of horse-drawn carriages, which capability of the system as a whole can be imposed prohibitive tolls and other conditions realized. on the use of steam power on roads, not 25. There is also an important message repealed until the end of the century. from the development of the car. That is that 20. Perhaps the most surprising feature of vehicle technology by itself is not enough. The Fig. 1 for the car/road, is the long time that it car only reached a position of dominance once took, after the appearance of the basic tech- an e€ective form of infrastructure had been nology, before it reached a fully competitive developed. A successful transport system position with the railway. It is clear why this requires optimizing both vehicle and infra- was so. This was because Daimler and others structure. This occurred in parallel in the case put their e€ort into devising improved vehicles of both the canal and the railway. rather than a complete transport system. The 26. An interesting feature of Fig. 1 is that inadequacies of the road system, originally the key invention for the next form of transport devised for horse-drawn conveyances at lower is found to occur shortly after the appearance speeds, remained a severe limitation to the of the peak build of the currently dominant e€ectiveness of cars in the UK until the 1940s. system. 21. In the UK it was the development of the 27. It may also be noted that the key to the trunk road after World War II, and sub- developments has been the appearance of tech- sequently the motorway system, which enabled nologies, not the appearance of science. The the massive expansion of the motor vehicle science underlying canals was simple, requiring trac. This development was driven by the only elementary hydraulic engineering. The considerable increase in demand for personal development of hydraulic science was due to travel, both from economic growth, and from Euler and Bernoulli in the mid 1700s. It is not social factors such as greater leisure time. clear that the great engineers of the time such Railways were still being built until the as Brindley were aware of the relevant mathe- development of the trunk road, which must be matics, or even that it would have been of much seen as a key element in the development of the value to them if they had. Most of the engineer- car-based transport system as a whole. This is ing decisions were driven (as today) by the why data on trunk road and motorway develop- most careful calculations of cost. Trevithick's ments have been selected for comparison in steam engine was developed at a time when it Table 1 and Fig. 1. The data in this case have was generally believed that heat was a form of been taken from Department of Transport weightless ¯uid. It was not until 1847, well into statistics.1 the railway age, and after the `railway mania' 22. It is intriguing that once again there of the 1840s, that Helmholtz gave the ®rst state- appears to be a double peak in the development ment of the law of conservation of energy. 17 LOWSON

28. The key breakthrough for each of the continue to have much potential for solution of developments analysed here has been the new transport problems of the next century. A integration of the basic technologies in some new transport system must also be expected to form of initial demonstration. Scienti®c dis- have consequences on the nature of the society coveries have been of lesser signi®cance. in which people live and work equivalent to 29. It is especially instructive to examine those caused by the previous great changes in the early history of railway developments. transport technologies. Many of the companies created to provide 32. It is clear that we are now past the peak transportation undertook long studies of alter- of motorway building. The message from the native technologies for the task, which might historical analysis is that it would be reason- be achieved by canal, plate railway, winding able to expect the key technology developments engine or locomotive. There appears to have for the next form of transport to be occurring been no inhibition about the use of new tech- now. nologies, despite the fact that the notion of con- 33. However, history also tells us that it tinual change, with which we are so familiar takes around 20 years before the technology is today, was far from being generally recognized. brought together to provide something of direct This seems to have been due to the fact that the bene®t to the population. It also tells us that key engineering discipline was cost. It is inter- the total time for development of a transport esting that Henry Booth, the Treasurer of the technology is 50 years from the ®rst demonstra- Liverpool and Manchester railway, also played tion of the critical enabling technologies (longer a key role in proposals for the improvement of in the case of the car). On the other hand the the boiler technology, being the ®rst to recog- historical record also tells us that the rate of nize the value of a multitube boiler for e€ective growth in the ®rst few years is explosive, with steam raising. It is dicult to imagine an massive changes in each case within ten years equivalent today. after the ®rst introduction. 30. The transportation objectives of the 34. The present day is characterized by a three types of transport system studied here far more explicit recognition of the importance di€er. The incentive for the canal was the of change, so that perhaps a more rapid uptake requirement to move bulk goods, and the of new technology could occur. This is balanced exploitation of the fact that a single horse by an appallingly complex legal and regulatory couldmoveasmuchas50tat4milesperhour framework, so that in many areas change is on a canal, compared with a limit, even on the almost impossible. Safety and planning regu- better roads, of a few hundredweight at half lations for transport are based on experience that speed. Canals did carry occasional passen- from previous technologies, much of which is gers on the packet boats, but passengers were unlikely to be of relevance to the new. Never- not a major part of their operations. Railways, theless, the message from history is that a new too, have depended on bulk carriage, but from form of transport technology is now due. the start the railway has also relied on income 35. A further message from the historical from passenger trac as a signi®cant element analysis is that a complete change of system of its pro®tability. Cars are directly linked to is required to provide a useful bene®t. personal transport, although even today many Trevithick's high pressure boiler would have people do not have access to a car and must use provided comparatively little overall advantage other forms of transport. Nevertheless, it is applied to the canal system. Although powered clear that the truck has also bene®ted enor- canal boats are now commonplace, they have mously from the modern trunk road and motor- not provided any signi®cant bene®t in the way system. Indeed the dimensions of the road capability of the canal as a means of transport system are set by the requirements of the over what was originally available from the largest trucks. Thus a further historical trend horse. The optimum canal system required has been that successive surface transport compromises which were built into the canal systems have become more and more dominated system by the engineers of the day, but which by the needs of personal transport. now provide a basic limitation on their e€ect- iveness. In the same way, the introduction of Some future projections diesel engines on trains did little to help the 31. The analysis also permits some projec- competition of the railway with the car. The tions of the future to be made. It appears design compromises of the railway system, almost inescapable that new forms of surface which led to very heavy rolling stock and pro- transport will appear during the next century, portionately massive infrastructure, made it so that versions of Fig. 1 prepared in 50 years e€ective in Victorian times, but prevent the time will re¯ect the building of new types of railway being used to solve transport problems system. It would indeed be surprising if tech- e€ectively today, except in special circum- nologies invented more than 100 years ago in stances. the case of the car (or tram), and more than 36. In the same way it seems likely that the 150 years ago in the case of the train, could compromises built into the car-based system, 18 SURFACE TRANSPORT HISTORY IN THE UK notably the large scale of the infrastructure, today, albeit in a rather di€erent manner from sized around the 40 t truck, must lead to signi®- in their heyday. cant in¯exibility in application of new tech- nologies to improve transport of the future. 37. Today there are new problems and Conclusions priorities. The rights of all individuals are now 39. An analysis of build rates of the three given far higher priority than in earlier times. great transport technologies of the industrial Pollution, whether by emissions, noise, or eraÐcanal, railway and car/roadÐhas shown simply visual intrusion is now recognized as a remarkable similarities in the speed and nature vital aspect of overall quality of life. Minimiza- of their development. In each case a period of tion of the use of energy and other resources is some 50 years was required to bring the tech- now acknowledged as having high priority. nology to full ¯ower. After this period each has Entirely new technologies such as computing had a diminishing bene®t, as a new technology are also now available. These issues were not has come into being. part of the design compromise built into any 40. The analysis suggests that the era of of the existing transport systems. It is clear dominance of surface transport by the auto- that the world cannot sustain a growth of the mobile is now drawing to an end, and that it is car/road system in presently developing reasonable to expect a new form of transport to countries which paralleled that in the West. come into being, involving new vehicles 38. The message from the historical matched to a new infrastructure, and designed analysis appears to be that we must look to a to meet new requirements, notably the issues of new system, with a new vehicle and infrastruc- sustainability. ture if we are to provide a signi®cant step forward in transport capability. History also suggests that this system would be strongly References oriented towards personal transport, sized to 1. Transport Statistics Great Britain. HMSO, meet personal transport needs. This would not Annually. 2. DYOS H. J. and ALDCROFT D. H. British Transport. exclude smaller-scale freight transport on a Leicester University Press, 1969. new system. Existing transport technologies 3. MITCHELL B. R. European Historical Statistics will not disappear. The car and truck can be 1750±1970. London University Press, 1975, 581± expected to contribute signi®cantly to transport 584. in the future in the same way that trains, and 4. BUNCH B. and HELLEMANS A. The Timetables of even canals, continue to contribute to transport Technology. Simon and Schuster, 1993.

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