The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-18 00:00:00

LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM

RAILWAY,

--
The advantages which the partial opening of the London
and Birmingham line offers to the public are greatly diminished
by the incomprehensible want of a good understanding be-
tween the Directors of that line and those of the Grand Junc-
tion Railway. Most undoubtedly it is as much the interest of
the proprietors of those two lines, as of the public, that every
facility should be afforded by each for forwarding the passen-
gore by the other; but, from
what we hear, the present ar-
angements might rather have been made with the view of
trying how much of trouble, inconvenience, and delay, could
be produced in transferring and forwarding passengers and
their luggage. As the two lines precisely correspond in
width of rails, the arrangement which common sense
would seem to dictate would be, that, immediately on
the arrival of a train at Birmingham, whether from
London or from Manchester and Liverpool, the car-
riages, with passengers intending to go forward, should be
transferred from one line to the other, and that an engine
should be ready to start with them, whether the time corre-
sponded with the ordinary hours of starting or not. For in-
stance,--the trains leaving London at half-past seven in the
111°1141g, and which have hitherto generally reached Birming-
ham a little after four, ought to find an engine ready to pro-
ceed with them for Manchester and Liverpool without loss of
time, and without any unnecessary delays on the road. As
the arrangements are now conducted, the passengers are de-
layed from half-past four until seven o'clock, and do not reach
is Manchester and Liverpool until half-past eleven at night, which
an exceedingly inconvenient time of arrival. On the other
hand,, the passengers who leave Manchester and Liverpool at
half-past six in the morning, and arrive at Birmingham at
eleven, find no conveyance forward until one, and are thus
detained, to their great annoyance, two hours, at a period
Which is too early for dinner, and when the greater part of
them will have no means of usefully or agreeably oecupy-
ant; their time. Great inconvenience is also experienced
at present in transferring the luggage, though we should ima-
gine that nothing would be easier than to have it packed in
Irne one carriage which could be moved at once from one
she to the other, and carried forward without requiring the
I'Lightest attention or anxiety on the part of the passengers.
If the number of persons arriving at Birmingham by one line,
and intending to proceed by the other, were small, such in-
conveniences would not be of any very serious consequence ;
but when these persons form, as they now do, a very large
proportion of the entire number of passengers, they have cer-
t ly a great right to complain that every practicable atten-
_lpn is not paid to their convenience by the two Companies.
With whom rests the blame of a want of cordial co-operatioz—
whether with the Directors of the London and Birmingham,
or of the Grand Junction, or with both we cannot pretend to
Say ; but the bad consequences of a continuance of the evil
will, be severely felt, not only by the public, but by the share-
holuers of the two Companies and we trust that the latter
(if the existing misunderstanding* should continue) will promptly
take the matter up, and require the Directors of each to con-
sent to some fair and reasonable arrangement, which shall at
"cc promote the convenience of the public, and prevent a
needless and, gratuitous sacrifice of the interests of the pro-
prietors.,Manchester Guardian.