* * * Last Sunday was the day appointed under
the Railways Act of 1921 for inaugurating the second of the two stages described in the Act. The first stage was the mere concentration of the railway companies into four groups. The planning of the second stage was much more intricate and several years of experience were needed before it was possible to come to conclusions. The duty of fixing railway charges, whether " standard " or " exceptional," now passes officially from Parliament to the Railway Rates Tribunal. Under the Railways Act enough revenue to pay small dividends is virtually guaranteed to the railways. It will be most interesting to see whether the estimates of the Tribunal arc pretty near the mark. The prices of season tickets are still well below the permitted maximum, even though they seem high. Perhaps the principal point to observe is that railway finance has now become so much more than formerly a statutory business that it is to the interest of all traders, and indeed the whole nation, to feed the railways with goods and passengers.
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