Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1935. BRITISH RAILWAYS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 23, 8 November 1935, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1935. BRITISH RAILWAYS.

The big scheme of railway development works in Britain, for which a loan of £30,000,000 is to be raised, is .the outcome of long, anxious consideration by the four large companies concerned. The increasing competition by motor transport has had considerable adverse effect upon railway revenue, and the great question has been how to meet the position. The scheme now formulated has a twofold object, firstly of encouraging rail transport and travel and, secondly, of reducing the cost of the services. The programme outlined will extend over five years, and in addition to reconstruction and the enlarging of many important stations and goods yards, the building of rolling stock, and the laying of new branch and loop lines, will include the extension of automatic train control, the installation of coloured light signalling and other safety precautions, and big schemes for electrification. The expansion of the railway system during its hundred years of existence brings home to our minds the marvellous progress made in the world during the century. Nearly two thousand miles of railway were authorised by Parliament in the first ten years after the opening of the pioneer line between Manchester and Liverpool in 1830; by 1840, the actual mileage laid was 3331 ; by 1850, 6635; by 1860, 10,410; and in 1870 it was 15,310. It was too much to expect that this rate bf extension could be maintained; after 1870 it slackened somewhat, but the mileage still grew prodigiously —there was no looking back after the success of the Liverpool and Manchester line. A striking testimony to that success was given by the railway mania” that prevailed for a few years; company after company got Parliamentary authority for flotation, and there was wild speculation in railway shares, leading to a financial crisis in 1847. Yet even this reverse could not check the phenomenal progress, and at the end of 1933 the total was 20,251 miles of first track only, not taking into account duplications, and excluding the lines controlled by the London Passenger Transport Board. The view taken by the railway companies as to the future of their undertakings was voiced recently by the Chairman of the Great Western Railway (Sir Robert Horne) in the following words: If some people are now inclined to say that the days of the railway are numbered it is only because their minds are confused by the rapid advances of these times. The truth is that more than ever the railways are vital to the transport system of every country and are essential to the efficient functioning of all the newer services. Wherever passengers have to be transported m large numbers or goods conveyed in great volume the railways provide -not merely the most economical but the only practicable method of carriage; and to all reflecting minds it will, be apparent that the future or efficient and economical transport depends upon close co-operation between ail systems of conveyance by rail, road and air.’