NEW PERILS FOR RAILWAY TRA VELLERS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 690, 9 July 1875, Page 4

NEW PERILS FOR RAILWAY TRA VELLERS.

—o (Graphic,) The railway travelling public is by this time pretty familiar with the ordinary forms of danger by railway. It has had fearful experience of the mishaps caused by broken tyres,, by parsimony and carelessness ;itis by no means unfamiliar with collisions, nor is it astonished, by trains running off the line. Such occurrences are only a few in the chapter of accidents to which every railway traveller is more or less liable. The Great Western Railway Company, however, according to a letter in The Times, have reserved a novel surprise, which will serve to alleviate the monotony of a railway journey. According to the writer of this letter we find that trains on nearing Wednesbury go at a walking pace, and the reason of this is that the whole ground is undermined by coal pits, ar.d is every day becoming more dangerous ,by tho sinking of the embankment on which the permanent way is laid. Hg was further informed that it was quite possible to look right into the shafts of the coal pits as you pass over them. It is satisfactory to hear that a survey has been lately made of the spot, and it would be still more satisfactory to know that the traffic had been suspended until something had been done to ensure the safety of passengers. It is to be hoped no time will be lost with regard to taking some decisive steps in this matter, especially when we are assured that everyone in that immediate neighborhood believes the place to be in a moat dangerous state, and likely at any moment to give way. It would be pleasant to think that the fears of the writer of the letter to The Times had exaggerated the perils of the Wednesbury line, and it would be comforting if the directors of the Great Western Railway would publish the details of a report which would entirely set at rest the fears of future travellers by their line.