The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-11-14 00:00:00

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

The following circular has been addressed to the
shareholders of the Midland Railway by the chairman,
Mr. E. S. Ellis, on the subject of the abolition of
second-class carriages :
'The action of your directors with regard to the abolition
of second-class carriages has been so keenly and in some
cases unfairly criticised, that 1 deem It right, in justice to
you, to my colleagues, and to myself, to state explicitly the
reasons which influence us in recommending the proposed
change.

"The charge has been freely made that we are aboliahin
second-class carriages and reducing first-class fares with the
object of injuring adjoining companies and entering upon •
course of new and ruinous Competition which deserves re-
prisals at their hands This charge is totally unfounded,
and I am glad to acknowledge that it has received no coun-
tenance from the railway companies themselves. Our only
objects are to increase the profits of the Midland Company by
reducing the cost of working the passenger service, and by
obtaining a greater number of passengers at lower first-class
fares It is to the encouragement and increase of the local
traffic on our own system that we look for a return, not to
the abstraction of traffic from other companies.
"A change of this character may prove to be less bene-
ficial to other companies than to this--that it will be
seriously injurious to any your directors do not believe—but
we hold ourselves responsible in the conduct of the affairs
of this company to Midland proprietors alone, and we are not
justified in rejecting a change which we are convinced will
be beneficial to them, because it may not suit one or more
neighbouring companies, the circumstances of whose traffic
may be widely different, and who after all are keen com-
petitors with the Midland, not inindful, as the last few years
have shown, of the interests of Midland sharehold
" It must be remembered that the Midland Railway one
grown up under different circumstances from itameighbours.
We are often charged either good-humouredly or otherwise
with aggressiveness; but shareholders who have been long
Connected with the company will recall bow the policy of
extension (miscalled aggression) was Laced upon as. The
Midland system originally formed part of the route from
London to Leeds, York, and Scotland, rid Rugby and Nor-
wanton, and from South Widen to the North, rid Glocester ;
but the construction of the Great Northern Railway. and the
extensions of the London anti North-Western and Great
Western companies deprived us of our through traffic—a
project of amalgamation with the London and North-
Western failed—and the Midland directors and shareholders
were left to choose between the pokey of making the Midland
a complete system, independent of its neighbours, or of re-
maining as a local line to be gradually starved by our more
fortunate competitors on ear., side.

Those who remember the facts will know thatthe state-
ment is not exaggerated. The policy of extension was
adopted and succemsfully carried out under many difficulties,
and shareholders have since had no reason to regret the
patience and self-denial then largely drawn upon, or the
confidence which they extended to their then direct as, and
no one who has watched the subsequent development of the
districts traversed by our system can doubt the enormous ad-
vantages which the public have derived.
'The result of the working since our system became an
independent through line has, as regards goods and mineral
traffic, been highly satisfactory, but the passengers receipts
were not found to improve to an equal extent, and the
question how best to increase those receipts and to dimi-
nish working expenses has long occupied your directors at-
tention.

With this object the experiment wastried in laid of con-
veying third-class passengers by all trains. The success of
that policy justifies your directors in asking your coLildenee
and support in carryi.g out the present proposal, which is
based upon the former change, and is an almost necessary
consequence of it.

"The third-class working commenced in April, len, and
the results, comparing 1071, the last complete year before
the change, with 1873, the first complete year after it, are as
follows :

"The number of passengers carried was increased by
3,894,212. The total receipts from passenger traffic were in.
ermined by £183,000. The number of passenger train miles
run was reduced by 500,000 miles. The receipts per train
mile were increased from 3s. 114. to 09. 10d, or by 94, per
train mile.
"To the above increased receipts must be added the saving
of the cost of working 500,00 train miles, which may be
approximately taken at £37,000, giving a total of £220,000, a
result which cannot hut be regarded as satisfactory, as the
rate of increase is far in mess of that obtained under the
old system.

" One effect of the third-class working has, however, been
to partially empty the second-class carriage. Many second-
class passengers have preferred to pay the reduced fare of
Id. per mile, instead of lid., and travel third-class ; but, .0
shown above, the increase in the number of passengers has
more than paid for the reduction in the price ortravelllng.
"La consequence of the reduced number of second class
passengers, the trains carry a considerable amount of dead
weight in second-class carriages, and one of the chief objects
of the proposed alteration is to avoid this dead weight.
"The following table shows the number of passengers for
each class carried in 1873, and the receipts produced-
-1,138,490 First-class passengers paid.. £224,739
2,487,590 Second,, „ 208,395
18,370,053 Thirst „ 961,312

Total 21,994,048.. .. £1,398,448
The relative proportions of receipts from each class to the
entire receipts being—let Class
3rd „

16'36 per cent.
14-90 „
6870 „

"The.. poisons to whom luxury in
Portant than out (hut who do not form
a consid e ralle minority a travellers o•
will have the best accommodation •
of Pullin. Palace and Sleeping
been introduced with access on p
which it is proposed gradually to extend.
An additiossi convenience to the NMW,
aISII6II Win illuble companies to !stream*, is the na
return tickets of both closes, without restrictions as to the
date of the return journey.
'The grounds, therefore, upon which the directors base
their recommendation to the proprietors are—

yet
Cars,

"1. That the experience of the third-class working shows
that a rednytlon in fitit-elassfares end an improvement in
second-class acconinnKlation must produce a bags inereaae
In the number of travellers and In the receipts.
" '2. Ilist even without any increased receipts, the nominal
loss inu..t be fully recouped b the more economical working
of the truffle.

_
"A desire has been expressed by some proprietors that the
change should nut be effected until it has been considered at
a meeting of shareholders. Your directors, believinn that
discussion will show their policy to be in accordance with
the best interests of the Company, willingly accede to this,
and 1 have there! re to invite all shareholders who are in-
terested in the matter to meet the directors at a special
meeting to be held at the Railway-station, Derby, on 'Tues-
day, the 17th Of November, 1874. at half-past one o'clock in
the afternoon, of which notice will be given by advertisement
in the usual way."

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