Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/278

 with some care, it may be of interest not only to those professionally engaged in the working of railways, but to the public whose interests are largely concerned, to give here some of the conclusions to which he has been led. It is only fair, however, to premise that although the views expressed in the following pages are fully endorsed by some of the leading English railway managers, there are others with whom they find less favour, and they must therefore be taken merely as representing the result of the writer's own experience.

There can, at least, be no question as to the great importance of the subject to all who are engaged in conducting railway traffic, whether in Great Britain or upon the Continent of Europe, since it is a fact that in these modern times the demands made upon railway companies on behalf of the public, not only for the reduction of fares, but for increased speed, more frequent trains, and improved accommodation, have increased, and continue to increase, in such ratio as to render it exceedingly difficult for the companies to keep pace with them without altogether sacrificing the interests of their shareholders. There is, in fact, a great tendency to regard railway companies as monopolists—a reproach to which, in these days of unrestricted competition, few of them are open—and to bring to bear every sort of influence to exact new concessions without any regard to the profit derived, or the loss incurred, in carrying on the business. Thus, while the travelling public benefit, the railway shareholder finds himself filling the doubtless honourable, but not always profitable, rôle of a philanthropist, investing his capital for the advantage of the community at large. It may be, perhaps, that on the Continent, where the railways are more or less under