RAILWAY REFORM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2247, 8 October 1889, Page 2

RAILWAY REFORM.

Through the indcmitible energy and patient persistence oi Mr Samuel Vaile, whose proposals for railway reform have, during the past three or four years, been frequently discussed both m and out of Parliament, a Railway Reform League has been formed m Auckland— that city of leagues, movements, and missions — and we have been favored with a copy of a prospectus and ciroular relating to the new organisation. From this we see that most of the leading business firms have joined the League and that an influential Committee has been appointed to further its objects which are thus set forth m the platform which has been laid down, viz. : —

1. The total abolition of differential rating. 2. The abolition of mileage rating, and the substitution of a stage system.

3. The stage system adopted to be of such a nature as to give special facilities to districts and settlers far removed from a market.

4. A reduotion m the charges for the conveyance of passengers and goods. 5. A simplification m the classification of goods. 6. A simplification and amalgamation of terminal,- weighing, cranage, and other charges,

Flanks 5 and 6 of this platform need not be Bpecially referred to, and planks 1 to 4 may be all included under one head, which is the adoption of Mr Vaile'a plan «f uniform charges for passengers and goods, upon a system of stages instead of a mileage rate. Mr Vaile has, over and over again, shown to his own satisfaction and that of the believers m his system that this method would enable an enormous reduction m charges to be made, while at the time increasing the railway revenue m consequence of the immense increase of traffic which he regards as the inevitable result, but he has not succeeded as yet m convincing the heads of the Railway Department, nor a Parliamentary Committee, of the soundness of his calculations, or we should, perhaps, rather say the reliability of his anticipations. Under these circumstances we can hardly suppose that the Railway Reform League can look forward to induoing tho Commissioners, who for the next four years have the sole administration of the lines, to make the xisky experiment of adopting the new system, and indeed the Commissioners would certainly not be justified m so doing until the plan has been tried ! elsewhere, and has demonstrated its soundness by the financial results obtained. Fortunately it is not necessary that they should take a leap m the dark, even were they so inolined, for we learn from the " Morning Post " of 24th July last that the very system advocated by Mr Vaile and the Auckland Railway Reform League is about to be put m operation m Hungary where it is known as '* the system." {n point of fact the experiment is now actually m progresß, for the journal above-named B » yB : — "From the Ist August the old system of charging for a railway journey according to tho distance travelled is to be altogether abolished, and prices will be regulated aooor^Wg to "zones." The entire' kingdom ita'versed by the gtatp lines has been divided into 'such zones, fourteen m number, and the cost of a railway ticket from a statpn within any pno of these to a point m any pther^lll bp calculated according to the number g f toneu through wMoh tha traveller pasges, irrespective antirel; of the distance, Ia Wf 7*7 «Te»j ftttioQ m. the eawe bobq '

will be placed on an equality as regards he charges for railway conveyance, hough one may be twenty- five or thirty miles from the other The reduction made m consequence of this radical reform of the syßtem of fareß is something extraordinary. As an example, $ir A, Nicholson, Her Majesty's Consul General at Buda-Pestb, points out m a despatch to the Foreign Office that the price of a first-class ticket from Pesth to tfronstadt, which is at present £8 17s 6d, will, under the new system, be only 16s, or about one-fifth of what it was, speaking roughly. Nor is this the only reform to be carried out. To encourage local traffic, passengers will be allowed to travel from one station to the next — irrespective of distance— for the absurd sum of 5d first class, 2|d second classe 2d third class, while from any onn station to the second following statioy ' the third class passengers will only pa — no matter what the distance may be— the second class travellers If d and first class 3d more. Tne reasons that have moved the Hungarian Government to sanction such a radical charge m the system of railway rates are simple enough. Charges moderate m themselves are found to be too high m proportion to the means of the great bulk of the Hungarian populace, which accordingly cannot afford to atail itself of the facilities for travelling offered by the State railway lines. Thus, it has been ascertained, by comparison of figures bearing on the question, that while m Austria eaoh inhabitant makes two railway journeys a year, m Germany five, and m England over fittaen a year, the average m Hungary is less than one jonrney. It is hoped that the great reduction now to be made m the fares, and the new system of estimating the cost oi a ticket by zones, will lead to an extended patronage of the railways. As may be imagined, the new system of charging for the conveyance of passengers which is to come into operation on the several Hungarian fctate railways has provoked a good deal of comment and criticism on the Continent, and many doubts are expressed, even m Hungary, as to the chances of its proving successful. But it is obviously impossible to foresee what the result of an experiment oi this kind will be, In any case, it is undoubtedly, what Sir A. Nicholson terms it, a courageous attempt to confer a great boon on the general travelling publio of Hungary and develop railway traffic there. And apart from its effects m that country, it constitutes an entirely new departure m railway enterprise, making an innovation that may yet have important and far-reaching consequences. If it is found to answer it will almost of a certainty be adopted also m Germany* where proposals for the establishment of railway aones, and a system of uniform rates based upon them, have long been urged bjr railway reformers. And it is hardly likely that anything of this nature will prove successful abroad without suggesting modifications of a similar character to the enterprising managers of some of the great trunk lines here and m the United States. After all, our railways are only the growth of the last fifty years ; they are still m a tentative stage, so far as the conditions that tend to the most profitable working of the lines are concerned. Railway travelling has by no means attained its maximum development either here or m America, and passenger traffic is capable of enortnous development yet. ... . . .

It is quite conceivable that a simplified system of charging for tickets, resulting m a redaction of fares, and greater facilities for travelling, would lead to an expansion of passenger traffic only to be compared to the increase of the number of letters per head that followed the introduction of the penny post m this country and the abrogation of our old and well-nigh forgotten postal system." bhoald this Hungarian experiment prove to be a success „ then the position of Mr V aile and his colleagues of the Railway Reform League will be greatly strengthened, though it still would not follow as a necessary consequence that the same system would work out prtoisely similar results m New Zealand, because the conditions as regards population, etc., are by no means identical That can only be shown by actual experiment m New Zealand itself, but m case of success m Hungary it may be that Mr Vaile and his supporters may take heart of grace and accept the offer which we believe has already been made to them to take over the lines, say of the North Island, and work them upon this system for a period of three or four years, merely giving sufficient guarantee for the payment to the State of an annual sum i equal to their present net earnings, and themselves being entitled to any increased proceeds derived as the result of the new system of working. Under that plan the Railway Reformers, if prepared to back their own opinions, will reap (sup* posing those opinions to be sound) a substantial profit, and the colony will derive the advantage of being shown experimentally how to work its railways to the best advantage.