Take, for instance,
the case of the Midland Great-Western. On 330 out of its 538 miles not
more than six trains each way in the 24 hours are required, and they
could probably be reduced without hurting anyone. These figures relate
not to the exceptional war time in which I pen these lines, when stern
necessity has sweepingly reduced the train service, but to pre-war days
when normal conditions prevailed. Half a dozen trains each way per day!
In England there are as many, or more, in the hour!
The Act of 1889 also dealt with the working hours of railway men whose
duty involved the safety of trains or passengers, and required each
company to make periodical returns of those employed for longer hours
than were to be named from time to time by the Board of Trade; and it
contained further a useful clause to the effect that the fares were in
future to be printed on passenger tickets. I should not be surprised if
this simple little clause has not brought more real satisfaction to the
minds and hearts of the people of the British Isles than all the laboured
legislation on railway rates and charges.
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