Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/301

Rh tend to materially increase the volume of business; as a rule people do not take long journeys unless they are called upon by actual necessity to do so, and in that case they will travel, whatever the fare may be, within reasonable limits. Of course, however, this remark is not intended to apply to the traffic between large towns and seaside or other holiday resorts, which all the companies encourage by granting return tickets at low fares during the summer months, this being a case in which, by judicious concessions, a traffic is created which would not otherwise exist to anything like the same extent.

A return to the earlier practice of conveying third class passengers only by secondary trains, combined with a general reduction of speed, is practically out of the question, for if anyone were sufficiently bold to propose any such retrograde policy, it would encounter the strongest tide of public opinion in opposition to it, and it would be impossible to get all the companies to adopt and adhere to it in the face of the pressure which would be brought to bear upon them. For good or evil these concessions have been granted and cannot now be withdrawn, and it only remains for the railway companies to make the best of the situation as it exists, and to endeavour to protect themselves against further losses. In the end, it seems probable that the companies, if they are wise, will achieve this object by some kind of combination amongst themselves by which excessive competition may be obviated, and two or more companies carrying between common points may be enabled to reduce their train mileage, to curtail the running of unprofitable trains and a great deal of unnecessary expenditure, and to keep the speed of the trains