A Railway Revolution!
ROYAL RAILWAYS
FARES & RATES
FOR ANY DISTANCE.
| LOCAL TRAINS | ONE PENNY | |
| MAIN LINE ” | ONE SHILLING | |
| SLOW GOODS | average per ton } | 1s. 6d. |
| FAST ” | 10s. | |
A business proposition for Shareholdersand the Nation.
Sixpence Nett.
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD.,
LONDON
ROYAL RAILWAYS
with Uniform Rates
by
Whately C. Arnold, LL.B. Lond.
A PROPOSAL
for amalgamation of Railways with the
General Post Office and adoption of
uniform fares and rates for any distance.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL,
HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD
1914
Preface.
This pamphlet has been printed and published with theassistance of friends who share my opinion that the schemeproposed will solve the railway problem—now at an acutestage.
A rough outline of the Scheme has been submitted toSir Charles Cameron, Bart. (on whose initiative sixpennytelegrams were adopted), and while reserving his opinion asto the advantages of State ownership and the difficulties ofpurchase, he has been good enough to write that this schemeis the boldest and best reasoned plea for the Nationalisationof Railways that he has come across.
The scheme has also been submitted to, among others,Mr. Emil Davies, Chairman of the Railway NationalisationSociety, to Mr. L. G. Chiozza Money, M.P., and to Mr. PhilipSnowden, M.P., all of whom have expressed their approvalsubject to the figures and estimates being correct. Thesefigures and estimates are based on the Official Board of Tradereturns for Railways of 1911 and 1912.
I also had the temerity to submit my draft to Mr. W. M.Acworth, the well-known Railway expert, who very courteouslygave me his views generally, although refraining from any detailedcriticism. I deal with his remarks at the end of ChapterIV., but may here mention that Mr. Acworth called my attentionto an article by himself on Railways in “Palgrave’sEncyclopædia of Political Economy” published in 1899. Insuch article he referred to a suggestion which had then beenmade for uniform fares on the Postal system, and he dismissedthe idea in a sentence as impracticable, because no one would payfor a short journey as much as 8d., then the average fare forthe whole country.
It is therefore evident that the principle of a flat rate is notnovel; yet I can find no reference in any books or pamphletson railways to any practical scheme for carrying it into effect.Apparently it has been assumed that there can be only oneuniform rate, equivalent to the average rate, and that thereforethe proposal is quite impos