RIVAL OF THE RAILWAYS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1875, 8 October 1913, Page 8

RIVAL OF THE RAILWAYS

EFFECT OF STREET TRACTION IN BRITAIN., A decline of 31,980,000 in the number of railway passengers travelling in tho United kingdom last year js an outstanding feature in the records of tho railways' bluo book issued at tho end .of August. . A large,increase in tho receipts from passenger traffic is coupled with it, suggesting a paradox, but tho explanation is to bo found probably,_ in tho booming trade. Money is plentiful, and and though fewer people may be dependent on the railways for short journeys in these days of motor-omnibuses, thoso who. go on holiday trips can_ afford to take longer and more expensive tours, putting more money into tho coffers of tho railway companies. Last year is a difficult one with which to make comparisons, because the great coal strike disorganised tho working of the railways for some weeks, but Mr. Georgo Stanley, tho head of the' railway department of the Board of Trade, has no doubt that tho very much improved and extended motor-omnibus services of London and the adjacent districts must have had "considerable effect" in reducing short-distauco railway travelling. A point to which attention is not drawn' is the number of families who nowadays motor tp tho seaside on their annual holiday. A few years ago, as tlio "Daily Mail" remarks, there was no alternative to tho railway, but nowadays families who aro travelling to the crowded and popular resorts within 100 miles of London order a motor-oar from the local garago and make the trip in loomfort iiwm_ door to door without change of vehicle. In addition to the largo number of people who own cars, thousands of families in London havo this year ignored tho railways, for trade is good and there is no need to study the expense of hiring a car. For some years now it has been custumory to.note the declining patronage of tho firsMlass carriage. In 1912 tho numbers of first, sccond, and third-class passengers all went down with a run. The drop of in tho secondclass passengers was, of coure, attributable to the abolition of that class on several main-lino railways. It is tlio loss of 21 million third-class passengers, that is the diquioting feature to the railway companies. The tables give no particulars of tho number of omnibus passengers, but tho tramway statistics 6how that tte cars are adding millions a year to tlieir patrons. For example, while the thirdclass railway passengers grew. by 43 millions in 1910, there was an increase of IG3 millions in the tramway patrons during tho same year, and while in 1911 the railways had. an increase of 21 million third-class passengers, the tramway passengers increased by 220 aiillions.