As the financial difficultice of the railway companies are now
attracting attention, Dr. Fenelon's concise and well-informed book on Railway Economies (Methuen, 5s.) appears oppor- tunely. It follows after seven years his Economics of Road Transport. It does not enter into so much detail as Mr. Sher- rington's classic treatise, but it covers those aspects of railway working in which the public and the trader are interested, and gives convenient summaries of documents like the Railway Act of 1921, the wages agreements and the Weir report on electrification. Moreover, the author puts both sides of the case in regard, for instance, to the question of a State railway service or to that of private wagons. His chapters on the theory and practice of railway rates are conunendably clear ; they show, at any rate, that much of the complexity of the rating system which baffles or infuriates the trader is un- avoidable if customers are to be treated with even-handed justice as the Act of 1921 requires. Dr. Fenelon is doubtful about main-line electrification, and points out that the esti- mates of cost and profit in the Weir report were sketchy and uncertain. The oil-electric locomotive promises well as a rival to the steam locomotive, but has its disadvantages. On branch lines the steam rail car might be employed much more frequently. The possibilities of combined rail and road services are outlined in a closing chapter.
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