Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/272



There would thus be, instead of the large gains anticipated, an. actual loss, of nearly a million sterling per annum; but this calculation proceeds upon the assumption that the rates and charges and the gross receipts would be the same as they are at the present time, whereas one of the principal avowed objects of those who recommend State purchase is that, as the profits of the shareholders would be reaped by the Exchequer, the Government would be enabled to reduce the rates and fares for the benefit of the public. Yet if the Government ventured to do this even to the very moderate extent of ten per cent., they would, even after making every allowance for any economy of working that might be effected by the concentration of management, at once find themselves with a deficit of several millions sterling per annum, on the working of the railways, to be made up out of other sources of revenue.

But apart altogether from financial considerations, there are many and grave objections to the scheme, the most important of which may be briefly summed up as follows:—