The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-28 00:00:00

THE POST-OFFICE AND THE RAILWAYS.

The following- circular has been addressed, by order
of the Postmaster-General, to the various Railway

Boards

General Post-office, Jan. 25, 1854.
Sir,—l am directed by the Postmaster-General to request
the attention of the directors of your company to the seri-
ous and long-continued irregularity of the mail trains be-
tween London and the north. In doing so, I must premise
that as this letter, with the exception of the subjoined
special statement, will be addressed to the company gene-
rally, some parts of it may have no direct reference to
your particular railway. It will be best, however, that
each body of directors should be put in possession of the
whole case, though the Postmaster-General distinctly re-
cognises the limitation of each company's responsibility to
the conveyance of the mails over its own line within the
prescribed time, and does not expect that one company
should make up for the time lost by another.
Directing attention at present only to the night mail
trains, as those most urgently requiring correction, it ap-
pears that in the month of November (taken as compara-
tively free from special causes of interruption), the time
actually occupied on your line exceeded that allowed for
the service to the extent shown by the enclosed statement.
It will be easily understood that want of punctuality
in a mail train not only causes a corresponding retardation
in the delivery of the letters on the main line, but also, by
dislocating the arrangements for branch mails, produces
an amount of derangement and inconvenience extending
throughout the whole ramification of the service.
In many of the complaints which have naturally arisen
from this state of things, the evil has been erroneously
at-
tributed to want of sufficient force in the Post-office, al-
though it is obvious that so long as the mail trains remain
irregular no increased efforts or expenditure in this depart-
ment can remedy the inconvenience.
Nor can this irregularity in the mail trains be justly
attributed, as has been alleged by some companies in reply
to former remonstrances, to insufficiency in the time
allowed by the Post-office, which, for the night mail trains
between London and Glasgow or Edinburgh, by which-
ever route, exceeds that taken by the companies for their
express trains on the same lines, and this, after making
ample allowance for the additional stoppages required for
the mail service. So far, therefore, from it being neces-
sary or reasonable that the Postmaster-General should ex-
tend the time allowed, he is bound to demand a reduction
thereof ; since the public has a right to expect that its
correspondence should be conveyed at the greatest speed
L attained in the conveyance of passengers, a point which,
as the Postmaster-General has great pleasure in acknow-
ledging, the directors of the lines south of Edinburgh and
Glasgow, by the western route, have, in the negotiations
now pending, already fully conceded. Awaiting, how-
ever, the completion of the many minute arrangements
necessary for this important acceleration, a matter which
will occupy some few months, the Postmaster-General
cannot but regard it as indispensable that an immediate
stop should be put to the present irregularities.
The real source of delay, as has been indicated on former
occasions, is to be found partly in stoppages at stations,
where they are not required by the mail service, but prin-
cipally in the excessive traffic thrown on the mail trains,
much of this being of a kind commonly excluded from ex-
press trains; as, for instance, third-class passengers, pri-
vate carriages, horse-boxes, and fish-trucks. In fact, the
night mail trains are generally much too long and too heavy
to admit of the service being duly performed ; and it is
essential that they be at once brought within proper limits
—a change which might, perhaps, be facilitated by putting
the trains in question on the footing of first-class express
trains.
That such a reduction of traffic would tend greatly to
the desired result is shown by the fact that the mail train
leaving Scotland on the Sunday, being of moderate size, is
generaly punctual, at least until it has made considerable
progress to the south.
The unnecessary stoppages referred to above have been
justified by some of the companies on the plea that they
still leave time enough for the performance of the service
—a plea which, I need not observe, is not only inconsistent
with the allegation of insufficiency in the time allowed by
the Post-office, but even amounts to a virtual admission
that such allowance is excessive, and consequently should
for the public convenience be reduced.
The truth doubtless is, that even with these stoppages
the prescribed time may be kept, provided all circum-
stances be favourable ; but it cannot be requisite to point
out to the directors the necessity of allowing a margin for

unforeseen mischances.
In making these suggestions, however, the Postmaster-
General feels that it lies rather with the companies to find
the means for securing the necessary end—viz., the punc-
tual performance of the mail service. To attain this end,
every effort is made by the Post-office ; several stoppages
which the department was authorised to demand having
been set aside at considerable sacrifice, while measures
have been taken, and others are in progress, for removing
causes of occasional' slight delay in the Post-office duty at
the respective stations. Moreover, in the above-named
negotiations for a still further increase of speed, his lord-
ship, in calling on the companies to secure the punctuality
of the accelerated mails, by limitation in the number of
carriages, and by the establishment of penalties for delay,
offered to subject the Post-office to corresponding penalties
for irregularity on its part, leaving it to the arbitrators to
take these circumstances into consideration in fixing the
remuneration for the service. This arrangement, much to
his lordship's regret, was declined by the companies ; but
he desires me to press the principle of the measure on the
attention of your directors, and to add, that should they
assent, as he trusts they will, to entertain the question, he
will be prepared either to receive from them, or to lay be-
fore them, as they may prefer, the full and detailed terms
of such an agreement.
In short, the swift and regular conveyance of the mails
must be regarded as the one essential object of the mail
trains, and to this all minor considerations must be sacri-
ficed. It is for the performance of this duty, and upon
this understanding, that the companies are paid; and to
fail therein, unless from occasional circumstances beyond
control, is to withhold from the public that which it has
purchased at a large cost.
If, with regard to any of the mails now in question, it
be thought that the award has been made on a different
understanding, his lordship is ready to re-open such award,
in order that the matter may henceforward be placed on
this its proper foting, and all doubt as to his right in
every ease to claim and enforce the most exact punctuality
be removed.
In thus urging on the directors measures essential to the
right working of the Post-office system, his lordship would
suggest for their consideration whether the adoption of
such measures would not tend equally to the convenience
of passengers and the benefit of companies.
It surely must be important that the conveyances bear-
ing her Majesty's mails, which have usually been selected
with marked preference by the travelling public, should
maintain, and even extend, that reputation for speed and
punctuality on which such a preference is based. And,
independently of this consideration, when, as in the pre-
sent case, several companies have to work in conceit, it is
obviously to the interest of each that all should be punc-
tual ; and the Postmaster-General has, in fact, been
strongly urged by certain of the companies concerned in
running the mails in question, to exact punctuality from
the others.
Shout the directors desire it, the Postmaster-General
is willing to consider any suggestions which they may make
for such a re-distribution of the time between London and
the north as may not interfere with the efficiency of the
Post-office service, or any other proposals which may seem
to the directors likely to further the attainment of the end
in view.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,
ROWLAND HILL.