COMPANY MEETING
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
BEST YEAR SINCE 1930 THE annual general meeting of the Great Western Railway Company was held on February 23rd at the company's offices, Paddington Station, London, W. Viscount Horne, the Chairman, in the course of his speech, said : It is gratifying for me to be able to tell you that, in spite of the continuance of political unrest in several parts of the world, and many embarrassing restrictions on international trading, the year 5937 was the best experienced by the company since 193o.
The net revenue of the whole undertaking amounted to £6,886,505, an increase over 1936 of £571,676, out of which we have thought it desirable to appropriate £100,000 to a new works revenue suspense account. The amount available for dividend on the ordinary stock is £1,868,767. This is sufficient to enable a dividend of 4 per cent. to be paid on it for 1937, as compared with 3 per cent. last year and at the same time to increase the carry-forward by £74,785 to £151,578. This is the dividend which we now recommend.
The receipts for the last three months of the year were augmented by the increase authorised in July last by the Railway Rates Tribunal. After a prolonged hearing the Tribunal reached the conclusion that the deficiency in the railway company's net revenues was not due to any lack of efficiency or economy in management. They pointed out that the provisions of the Railways Act appeared to indicate that the legislature regarded the realisation by each company of its standard revenue to be in the public interest, and they decided that as an increase of 5 per cent. applied, so far as practicable, to all standard and exceptional charges, would enable the companies more nearly to earn the standard revenues, the charges should be modified accordingly as and from October 1st, 1937.
Although since the date when the case of the railway companies was brought before the Tribunal the new burden of increased wages has been imposed upon us, it is a matter for gratification that we have at least some prospect of additional revenue with which to meet it.
COAL PRICES.
We are, however, watching with some anxiety the upward trend of coal prices. Where coal forms so largea portion of our traffic, it is dear that the railway and the coalfields can only prosper in unison, but there is obviously a limit to what we can afford to pay. Every shilling of increase in prices means an additional cost to us of over £ too,000 per annum, and whilst we recognise that some increase in coal prices was right and proper in order to give a decent remuneration to the miner and a reasonable profit to the colliery owner, the recent increases in coal prices will represent a very substantial addition to the burdens which we have to face in the current year. We felt, therefore, that the large increase in the cost of operating steam locomotives made it incumbent upon us to explore the possibility of effecting economies by substituting other forms of traction where the conditions are favourable. We have accordingly engaged a firm of eminent consulting electrical engineers to prepare a scheme for the electrification of part of our system. We have under consideration at the moment the section of the line which runs between Taunton and Penzance.
In spite of the apparent setback in trade, the volume of traffic dealt with by us since the beginning of the current year does not show any diminution when compared with the corresponding weeks of last year. There are in fact good reasons for anticipating a further improvement in our business. During the year negotiations were completed for the establishment of 73 new factories on our system, some of which are already in production.
Even if our anticipations of additional traffic are not realised and the volume merely remains at last year's level, the increase in charges should, when the year is completed, yield us a sufficient additional revenue to meet the increased cost of salaries and wages as well as the rise in the price of materials, particularly as we are fortunate enough to hold considerable stocks and have contracts for further supplies at lower prices than obtain to-day. The report was adopted.
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