RAILWAY 17NPUNCTUALITY.
IT is sad news for railway travellers, especially for suburban railway travellers, that the Board of Trade has no statutory power to deal with the unpunctuality of trains. It may be that despairing passengers have some- times doubted whether the annoyances with which the Board of Trade has statutory power to deal are any the less persistent on that account. But the despair that arises from this latter source is at least spasmodic. The darkness is chequered by gleams of hope that Government will at last do something. When we discover that Government has not the power to do the something, whatever it may be, that is wanted, we settle down into a despondency which knows no alternative beyond recurrent letters to the Timm Mr. Ritchie argues that it would be unwise to relieve railway companies of their responsibility for the safe working of the line. We do not see, however, why the Board of Trade should not have the power of insisting on reasonable punctuality in the despatch and arrival of trains, except where the company could show that the delays had been unavoidable. The responsibility of the company for the safety of the passengers need not be interfered with, and it would be a sufficient answer to the Board that the desired punctuality could not be secured without risking that safety. Unpunctuality gives no security against accidents, rather it is a common cause of them ; and if Government interference is to be permitted for any purpose whatever, it may be permitted, we should say, for the purpose of saving the passengers' time. The railway traveller, in the ordinary sense of the term, knows little of the annoyance and injury inflicted on the suburban passenger by the uncertainty when he will reach ndon. Every minute of a busy man's time is mapped out, and the delay of half an hour in a train's arrival means the sacrifice perhaps of his first two appoint- ments. To the vast army of clerks who live a little way out of town it means much more than this. Either the clerk gets a character for coming late to his work, which is exceedingly injurious to his prospects, or he has to travel by an earlier train, and so waste the scanty time that he ordinarily has for himself. Taking all classes together, the aggregate loss of time, money, comfort, and tamper must be something enormous, and there is no sign that the railway companies, especially those south of the Thames, make any real or adequate effort. to _distinguish between the unpunctuality which is inevitable, and the unpunctuality which is due to their own bad arrange- ments.
Probably one cause of this omission is the fact that the avoidable unpunctuality is often exceedingly profitable. Lord Midleton, who headed the deputation which waited on Mr. Ritchie on Wednesday week, says that when he remonstrated with the late Chairman of the South. Western Company upon the habitual sacrifice of the wants of the regular passengers to the convenience of the visitors to Sandown or Kempton Park, Mr. Portal replied that the special race trains were so profitable that the directors had no choice but to do as they were doing. It is of no use, we fear, to hope that any number of complaints will induce directors to abandon a policy which they find lucrative. But we do think that MT. Ritchie might ask Parliament for powers—if his Depart- ment does not possess them already—to make the altera- tion or suppression of regular trains on race days illegal without the leave of the Board of Trade. As regards the South-Western Railway there can be little doubt that its present traffic is very much in excess of the provision it is able to make to meet it. Our old friend, "the neck of the bottle," constantly comes into play, and we are con- fronted by the simple truth that a railroad is as wide as its narrowest part. There may be many platforms at Waterloo, and many lines of rail at Clapham Junction, but if somewhere between these points the line re- mains of its normal breadth little is gained by fan- like extensions elsewhere. It is something, no doubt, to be assured on the authority of Mr. Ritchie that men are working night and day to widen the South-Western line as far as Woking and to enlarge Waterloo Station. We can only hope that the former process is going on on a sufficiently large scale, and that the changes at Waterloo will not end in making that mighty maze more without a plan than it is at present. We do not feel very sanguine, however, that these changes will have all the effect that is expected of them. Or rather we feel sure that, if they stand alone, they will only effect a partial improvement. Lord Midleton touched on another cause of unpunctuality when he said that the line is understaffed. There are not porters enough to cope with the luggage, and in the travelling season a train which has started late in the first instance will lose more time at every station. Luggage is every- where coming in, and there are not porters enough to put it quickly into the van. The only cure for this cause of unpunctuality is to fix a time after wilich luggage will not be booked for the train next following. If no luggage were allowed to be taken on to the platform for a quarter of an hour before the departure of a train'a very considerable step would have been taken in the direction of keeping time. It is impossible that a train should start punctually at four if any amount of heavy baggage may be taken off a cab and given- to the porters to label at five minutes before four. Whether passengers would approve of this change is another question. Englishmen are very fond of "running it fine" where trains are concerned, and to be refused admission to the platform when the train is still there would seem to many of them an unjustifiable hardship. We are con- vinced, however, that without the adoption of the Con- tinental habit of dealing with luggage in advance, no radical amendment is to be looked for as regards the despatch of trains. Lord Midleton instanced as another reason why things are specially bad on the South-Western line, the entire absence of competition throughout a great part of the system. We should be more ready to accept this explana- tion if we did not remember that similar complaints are not unknown in regard to the South-Eastern, the Brighton, and the Chatham and Dover lines ; that on these there was at one time a very active competition ; and that Parliament the other day saw no reason why, as regards two of them, the competition should be continued. The truth, perhaps, is that the influence of competition lies in directions where results can be realised quickly. To make the administration of the line more efficient, its staff more numerous, its stations more convenient, the arrangements for the comfort of the passengers more com- plete, means a large expenditure, and need not, at all eyenta in the first instance, mean a corresnonding increase of traffic. On thg other hand, a lowering of fares means an immediate growth in the number of tickets issued. The effect of the new policy is visible at the next half-yearly meeting, and as a result of this the first impulse of the directors of a railway threatened by competition is to embark on a war of rates. From this the public• derives a benefit which lasts just so long as it takes the rival lines to make up their quarrel. These things have, we say, to be kept in mind when competition is put forward as a remedy for unpunctuality. At the same time, it is difficult to feel assured that the public interest was sufficiently consulted in the instances mentioned by Lord Midleton. Fifteen years ago, he told Mr. Ritchie, a line was made from Guildford to Surbiton, which was to have been connected with the Metropolitan District, and so to have opened an alterna- tive route between Guildford and London. But as soon as Parliament had given leave to make the line it was sold to the South-Western Company, with the result that it serves merely for the relief of the traffic on the Direct Portsmouth line. Another line was projected which would have opened up fresh country between Godal- ming and Portsmouth. "Every landowner was in favour of it, but the South-Western opposed it," and opposed it successfully. We suspect that if this or similar proposals were now submitted to Parliament they might meet a different fate. No doubt a grant of com- pulsory powers of purchase ought not to be made without careful inquiry, but it is well not to attach too much im- portance to the representations of a company which has a virtual monopoly of a lucrative traffic.
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