Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/244

 companies the obligation of submitting an entirely new classification and schedule of maximum charges, which, after running the gauntlet of all objectors, and securing the approval of the Board of Trade, will be embodied in an Act, and receive the sanction of Parliament.

The rates are governed by the nature and extent of the traffic, the pressure of competition, either by water, by a rival railway route, or by other land carriage; but, above all, the companies have regard to the commercial value of the commodity, and the rate it will bear, so as to admit of its being produced and sold in a competing market with a fair margin of profit. The companies each do their best to meet the circumstances of the trade, to develop the resources of their own particular district, and to encourage the competition of markets, primarily, no doubt, in their own interest, but nevertheless greatly to the advantage of the community.

The fixing of passenger fares is a comparatively simple process. Between local stations on the North Western Railway the fares are made up, roughly speaking, on the basis of charging twopence per mile travelled for first-class passengers, three half-pence per mile for second-class, and one penny for third-class, the amount of the passenger duty being added to the first and second-class fares; but where there are competing routes, or where, in suburban districts, the opposition of omnibuses or tramways has to be encountered, the fares are often considerably reduced. Railway companies are sometimes very unfairly assailed when they reduce their rates or fares in order to meet competition, and it is somewhat hastily assumed that, if they were able to reduce their charges on compulsion, it was incumbent on them to have done so before. Thus, it is not uncommon