LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Railway Reforms
slit,—I have felt increasingly, since nationalisation, that our railway system could do far worse than follow ,the lines on which the Indian State Railways used to be administered. There we had a group of entirely separate railways, operated as compact entities under the ultimate supreme control of a small but experienced Railway Board. Locomotives, rolling-stock and equipment were standardised, and could thus be transferred from one railway to another as necessity demanded —these various standard designs being laid down, of course, by the Railway Board.
Local Advisory Committees, on which the various local public bodies, trading communities and so forth were represented, existed to keep the railway management informed as to the special require- ments of the various districts through which each railway passed and to ventilate local grievances. On the North-Western Railway—with its special frontier responsibilities—certain lines were classified as " stra- tegic," so far as accounts were concerned, and budgeted for separately; and I feel that this might well be the case in this country.
" Here, too, there are many lines which, under present-day conditions, cannot be expected to pay their way during peace-time, but whose main- tenance and efficiency in peace-time are essential on account of their vital importance in war-time. Such expenses—and they are, of neces- sity, heavy—should, I feel, not be borne by the British Transport Commission and passed on to the travelliu and trading public in the form of increased fares and rates, but should be treated as National Defence Expenditure. The Highland line north of Inverness, the much maligned Oxford-Bletchley-Cambridge line of the late L. & N.W.R. and the Midland and South-Western Junction and Didcot- Newbury-Winchester sections of the G.W. are but three of the many such lines that occur to the mind.
Finally I would make a very special plea for Janus's suggestion that the old names be revived—as, in the case of India, they were retained. I believe that this would do more than anything else to revive the esprit de corps on the staff side and the goodwill on the public side, without which no undertaking, whether publicly or
privately owned, can flourish.—Yours, &c., J. P. BARDSLEY.. Overseas Club, St. James's, S.W.1.
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