The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-09-15 00:00:00

CHEAP FARES ON RAILWAYS.

In an article on "Minor Legislation of the Sas?
son" The Times says :—A special feature in the
working of railways during the past few years has
been the remarkable increase in the number of third-
class passengers, and the correspond;ag, but of course
smaller, diminution in the number of those that
travel by the first and second classes. The Great
Northern Railway, f,,F example, now carries 60,000
fewer first class passengers in six months than it did
in 1877, and 160,000 fewer second class passengers,
while those of the third class have increased by as
many as 2,500,000. It is in general this third-class
traffic that pays well, and it is likely to be still further
developed by the encouragement given by the cheap
trains Act.

The Act, chapter 34, carries out one of the pro-
misee made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in
his Budget speech as to reducing the passenger duty.
The amount that will thus be ;remitted is, it appears,
about £400,000. Of the boons for which this sa!rifige
of revenue is to be made, one is that after the Ist of
next month all fares not exceeding the rate of Id.
a mile will be entirely exempt from duty. The
ordinary provision will still, however, prevail that
fares for return OF pariodical tickets will be exempt
only where the ordinary fare for the sing!e journey
does not exceed this rate. Then, again, the duty
be reduced from 6 to 2 per cept. on higher fares
between stations that are in the same "urban dis-
trict." For an area to be certified by the Board of
Trade as a district of this kind it must have "a con.
tinuous urban as distinguished from a rural or suburban
character." It must also contain a population of
100,000 inhabitants at least.
In return for these boons the Act requires pertain
concessions to be made by the railway companies. In
the first place a "due and sufficient proportion of the
accommodation provided '1 b to bp for third•plass pas-
sengers. And this is to be done not only op each line
of a single company, but on every system of railways
which forma a continuous means of communication,
whether it belongs to one company or to several.
Moreover, proper and sufficient workmen's trains are
to be provided. And the fares for these are to be such
as appear to the Board of Trade to be reasonable; as
also are their times between six in the evening and
eight in the morning. On these Tatters jurisdiction
is given to the Railway Comroissioners, an appeal to
them being allowed both to the Board and to the com-
pany. And if a company refuses to comply with an
order requiring proper accommodation, &c., it will be
deprived of all the advantages of the Act as to the
reduction of the passenger duty"
Other sections of the Act provide for the convey-
ance of the Queen's forces at reduced rates. The pre-
sent scale of charges wile fixed in 1844 at 21. per mile
for first class passengers and id. for those of the third-
class. Since that year, however, ordinary passenger
rates have been greatly reduced; and an object of the
Go arnment in passing this Act has been to make such
a reduction with regard to troops as is in accord with
the original .proportion between the rates charged for
troops and thoce for the public. Thus for less than 150
men the fares are to be three•fourths of those paid for
private passengers ; for the numbers neF.cess of 150,
a half. The police, it may be noticed, as viell as the
Queen's forces, are included in these provisions; as also
are the wives, widows, and children who are entitled
to be conveyed at the public expense.

wM