Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/299

Rh the principal places in the West of England two; and so on throughout the country.

From London to Manchester the London and North Western Company are running 16 trains daily, the Great Northern Company are running 8, and the Midland Company the same number. From London to Liverpool the North Western Company are running 13 trains daily, the Midland Company 9, and the Great Northern Company 6. From London to the principal places in Scotland, the North Western Company run 8 trains daily, the Midland Company 6, and the Great Northern Company 6. Between Liverpool and Manchester the London and North Western Company run upwards of 20 express trains a day in each direction, the Cheshire Lines Committee run about 25, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company will shortly be running about an equal number. Many of these trains run at the same times, or nearly so. For example, both the North Western and Great Northern Companies have trains leaving London for Scotland at 10 a.m., and the Midland Company have a similar train only half-an-hour later. By three different routes a train leaves Liverpool for London at or near 4.0 p.m., and such instances might be multiplied indefinitely, the trains in most cases performing the journey in about the same time, and at precisely the same fares. The traffic is thus acutely competitive, and the conditions being so equal, it requires but a trifling inducement to influence the travelling public in the choice of route, so that there is a constant temptation to the competing companies to make fresh concessions so as to attract the business from their rivals; and as any new departure by one company is immediately followed by its competitors, it