RAILWAY SAFETY.
STATISTICS to prove the actual safety of railway travelling as compared with other modes of transit, will not avail against the terrible characteristics of any great railway accident, or the fact that a great proportion of the disasters result from gross neg- lect The frightful accidents that succeeded each other so rapidly on the North-western Railway would not have occurred but for negligence. The official report of Captain Laffan, Inspector to the Railway Commissioners, on the accident at the Bay Horse station of the Lancaster and Preston Railway, exhibits a compli- cation of culpable neglect. The signals are insufficient : there is at the Bay Horse station only one set of signals for the two lines, so that drivers and guards do not know to which direction it applies; one is a red flag, which flutters in the wind, or even wraps itself tight round the flag-staff, so that the bunting is not visible. "The insufficiency of these signals was pointed out to the Company by Captain Coddington ; but his suggestions were not attended to." One of the carriages in the damaged train was so rotten that the Inspector could scrape a hole in it with his finger. The proper ownership of the railway is in debate: the line is kept by two companies—the Lancaster and Carlisle and the Lancaster and Preston, and there is a bad understanding be- tween the two : it is used by several companies. The servants of the local company regard the long trains as interlopers ; a jea- lousy fatally exemplified in this accident, when the guard of the local train said that the long train "must wait" till he chose to move. But the overruling cause is the disproportion between the traffic on the railway and its resources of accommodation— "The accommodation in the [Preston] station is utterly insufficient for the great traffic pa-sing through it; and most of the trains going Northward are very much delayed, and start late in consequence. On Monday last, the day this collision oc- curred, the local train of the Lancaster and Preston, which was subsequently overtaken and run into by the express, started 14 minutes late. It was standing ready in a siding, but could not be allowed even to come on the line, because two other trains, which were timed to start before it, were both detained. "The express-train of the Lancaster and Carlisle Company which leaves Lon- don at 9 a. et. should arrive at Preston at 5 minutes past 3, should leave that Place at 10 minutes past 3, and, running over the Lancaster and Preston line without stopping, should reach Lancaster at 44 minutes past 3. For some time past, however, it has invariably been late. For the last fortnight especially, it has seldom left Preston before a quarter past 4, and sometimes it has been so late as a quarter to 5. On Monday last it left Preston at 24 minutes past 4, being 25 minutes after the starting of the Lancaster and Preston local train. This Want of punctuality in the time of the express-train, causing it to start after in- stead of before a slow local train, is very dangerous when combined with the want of cordiality between the two companies and the insufficiency of the signals on the &a" At Scorton' an intermediate station, the rule is, that trains should not be allowed to pass at a less interval of time than five minutes ; and even an express train may follow a slow train at that interval! This rule indicates the great excess of traffic.
But it is one so palpably absurd, that those who are responsible for issuing it seem to be as much liable to the charge of homicide as the man who flings bricks out of window into a frequented street and kills a passenger. The excess of traffic is very embarrassing and tantalizing to the railway companies of the country : they do not resist the temptation to grasp all the custom they can; and hence they suffer, on most of the frequented lines a quick succession of trains, which is fraught with manifest and admitted danger. With a similar motive they suffer the time-bills to be utterly delusive. Nothing would be easier than to enforce on railways a punctuality as strict as that of military movements. The experienced officers must have a perfect knowledge of the time which it takes to attach passenger-carriages or to load vans; and sufficient time being allowed for those purposes, the train ought to start as unerringly as the clock strikes. But again the grasp- ing for custom interferes : trains are constantly kept waiting to take passengers and luggage that cannot be stowed away within the set time ; the whole arrangements of the line are thrown out, and that which might be exact is consigned to the dominion of chance.
It is preposterous to say that such things cannot be helped. We see well enough the inexpediency of state interference ; we believe that railway- companies could manage these things if they would : the difficulty is, that they display no adequate sense of responsibility; and the public is getting sick of "taking the will for the deed.' The companies might enforce absolute punctuality; they might train their servants to a discipline of military exact- ness; they might institute a system of promotion for good ser- vice, of rewards for the continued safety of the railway. But they don't. They evidently do not feel answerable. To do these things would demand something more than the mere trading spirt; but to that, it seems, they trust. It is a spirit, however, that will not suffice for the conduct of any great public function; and the guardians of the public interests ought to supply the com- plement that is wanting. If railway companies cannot be de- terred from killing the Queen's lieges, her Majesty's Ministers ought to look to their duty.
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