COSTLY RAILWAY

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 108, 10 May 1933, Page 9

COSTLY RAILWAY

CANADIAN NATIONAL

REMODELLING SCHEME

NOT AMALGAMATION

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVEB, March 30. The Parliament of Canada has given its approval to legislation aiming at drastic remodelling of Canada's railway systems, based on the findings of the Koyal Commission, of which Lord Ashfield was a member. This is but a stage towards final action that will be taken some day, when the principle becomes i generally accepted that it is amPracticable to have two transcontinental wards it&pkcep, h *«fM£ by individual shareholders as citizens problem, as it is today, with the Canadian National Bailway losing a million do lars a week, and the Canadian Pacific Railway unable to pay a dividend Durine the Mackenzie King Liberal regime 8, a chain of princely hotes was built across Canada by . the'>te B« Henry Thornton.- Palatial ships were built to compete in the At antic and on the Pacific Coast with theyC.P.B. vessels. One of these hotels, which dominates the skyline of Vancouver, was contracted to be built for £1000,000; the final cost to date is £3!000,000, with little prospect of the hotel being opened for use. Most of the palatial liners are laid up, sold, or •scranned In one year the Mackenzie Kinf Government Voted £40,000,000 for the Canadian National Bailway. NEW LECHSIiATION. ' The principle of the new legislation is that tUe Canadian National will be placed under three trustees instead of, seventeen directors, as at present; methods are laid down for co-operation between tho two systems, which will avoid immense duplication and waste; an arbitrary tribunal will be established for the settlement of disputes between the two. The Commission urged, and the Government endorses its suggestion, that there shall be no amalgamation of the two railways. As the Minister of Bailway s (Dr. Manxon) points out, amalgamation would set up a railway octopus that could influence Governments and Parliaments alike. The prevention of duplication, in railways, telegraphs, steamships, hotels, and' express services, was the dominant recommendation of the Boyal Commission. In any city in Canada will be found, in the same block, two telegraph offices, occupying expensive premises. Between Montreal and .... Ottawa, on parallel lines, are nine trains a, day, operated in each direction by the two systems. The same duplication occurs between many cities across the Dominion. Through the Fraser'CanyW, on the western slopes of the Bockies, each system occupies a bank of the river, constructed and operated at.a cost that is scarcely without equal in the world. Only one route is necessary, in the. opinion of the Commission. ' The immensity of the burden may be gauged from the fact that the interest bill for the Canadian National last year was £14,500,000. In addition, another interest bill of £9,000,000 is piling up each year for the same railway, owing to the Government by the Canadian National on past loans. No one believes that this will ever be paid. By comparison, the fixed charges for '■■ the • Canadian- Pacific last year was £5,500,000, financed on its own bonds. , REVENUE HALVED. The revenue of the Canadian National last year was a shade over half what it was in 1928, the peak year of prosperity.. Betrenchment ordered by the Bennett Government last year in the National system effected a saving of £11,000,000. In addition to this, the whole of the Canadian National transcontinental radio stations *haye been taken over by the Canadian Badio Commission, which will greatly lessen the burden on the people. . The debate in the House of Commons was conducted on party lines; which left little hope of an agreement being reached as to the efficacy of the recommendations of the Boyal Commission. It demonstrated the futility of the party system in dealing with, such an immense national problem. The Liberals condemned the Government as destroying the last vestige of democratic control, but they did not condemn in the same terms-the impartial'commission, drawn from the Motherland, the United States, and Canada., The new tribunal was assailed as a Tory ■ triumvirate. The Liberia undertook to fight the next General Election" on the issue, of the present railway legislation. If they are elected, by a turn of fortune's wheel, the value of the Commission's report and recommendations will be shortlived. But the people of Canada, who have been forced to give anxious consideration to their railway problem as tho greatest problem before them in this generation, may think and decide otherwise.