The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-28 00:00:00

[PR= SD.

RAIL WAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON AND SOUTIINVESTERN.I
The directors of this company hive resolved to re-
commend to the proprietors at the general meeting on
the 10th of August next that the dividend foe-the half-
year ending 30th of June, 1854, be at•the rate of 41
per cent. per annum on the capital.

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST.
The half-yearly meeting of this company was held yes-
terday at the Bridge-house Hotel, London-bridge ; Mr.
S. Laing, M.P., iti the chair.
• Mr. Slight, the secretary, having read the notice con-
vening the meeting, the report, an abstract of which ap-
peared onMonday, was taken as read.
• The CHAIRMAN, .in ntoeng the• adoption of the report
and stateurent'ef-accdunts congratulated the proprie-
tors on the prospei-ous eonditioh bf their affairs'. The
rteraaffisocrrhtoadmpeixrcrcetsa.. ed tmuCh more -than -they hadt•any
A•ecelpts during. the • past half-
year had increased. 44,000/. over these ,for the corre-
sponding period of 1853;' which -latter alsoe shoWed an
increase of 23,000/. over the correspo'n'ding period of
1852, _thus showing an ,increase in the course of two
years of 67,0001. on the half-year's traffic: It was only
right to warn them that must not expect that large
increase to continue. -At the same' time,' it should be
kept in mind that the chief amount of the increase had
• taken place during a time they were suffering to• some
extent from a bad harvest, a tight nnotneiys:inta herkyet,coaunlidi
other matters ; but, n tsvithstanding h
not expect that the traffic would go on increasing-at that
rate. With regard to the expenditure, it-would be-use.
less to gnintoany detail or to form ,comparisons until
they hail the whole expenditure of the year, before theni.
That would be the case at their next half-yearly meet-
ing in February, 1855. The traffic receipts • were
very unequally divided ; they were consider.
ably less in the first half of the year than they were
in the second half of the year. A great deal Of
the expenses were of a' fixed character, and therefore
appeared to fall heavily on the first half-year, while in
the second half-year they were lighter in proportion to
the traffic ; therefore it was only at the end of each year
they could make a fair comparison of the receipts and
lexpenditure wit h • presiddi et-years. The increase in the
.quantity Of worli.donts-In. the -price of coal, coke, oil,
iron, and other materials used on- railways; bad tended
to raise the amount of
.their expenditure. Considerinl
these matters, it was satisfactory that-the increase in the
expenditure during the half-year had not been greater
than it, was. In respect to the Crystal Palace traffic, ht
might be allowed to observe that it had always been the
policy of the board since he had the honour of presiding
over it to deal with the pubic in a liberal manner, trusti-
ing to the increase of facilities and accommodation
the development of the traffic. .They hid endeavoured
to avoid a narrow-minded policy, which in the eno
would defeat itself. He believed the true policy was tp
deal liberally with the public. and to afford as much
accommodation as possible.; They had earned out the
same policy with regard to the Crystal Palace traffic.
He could assure them, however, that that traffic was not
all profit ; they bad to work hard for what they got.
There was no railway upon which the regular traffic was
conducted at *so low a figure as on the Crystal Palace
line. A passenger was conveyed from the London
bridge station to the Crystal Palace, a distance of 7i
miles, and back for a certain fare. The price charged
for a third-class passenger was ls. 6d., of which the Cry
stal Palace received three-fourths until the receipts from
this Source amount to 30,0001., leaving sd. to the rail
way company for the conveyance of each third-class pas-
senger to the Crystal Palace and back. But, after the
sum he had mentioned was made up, the railway com-
pany would receive three-sevenths of the whole, or
,74d. per passenger. They thus conveyed, in the
first instance, the third-class passengers a distance of
15 miles for 5d., or at the rate of one-third of a
penny- per mile. The full fare would give them
per mile, which was about half the lowest fare
on railways in the kingdom. In performing the
15 miles there were considerable difficulties. -At th
Crystal Palace end of the line they had to ascend a' height
of 250 feet, which was equal to performing an additional
distance of 10 miles. On descending the incline they
only acquired a portion of the power lost in ascending,
as they had to check the train in its descent, arid not
allow it to go down at full speed. The ascent added
greatly to the expense of working the trains to the Cry-
stal Palace. They had also to run the distance tw'ics
over, for in taking the traffic down in the morning they
had to come back empty, and a similar state of thing
existed in the evening. In bringing back the visitors;
the carriages returned to the Palace empty to 'bring
more. Oa special days the trains ushaily conveyed 280
passengers, but on shilling days the greatest number
that could be conveyed by each train was from 500 to
560. As they had to run double the mileage for each
passenger in conveying him to and from the Crystal
Palace, the whole distance run by the train was 30
miles ; so that, practically, the one-third of a penny per
mile was nearer one-sixth of a pennir per mile. As to
the first-class passengers, they got two-thirds of a penny
per mile, or something'under a halfpenny per mile, for
the distance run. He believed those were the lowest
rates that had ever. been charged on any branch of traffic.
There were also considerable difficulties in running SQ
many extra trains in and out of the' LondOn station;
conveying 10,000 passengers to the Palace and as many
back every day; 20,000 passengers a-day was at the
rate of 6,000,000 per annum; it was, in fact, doubling
the existing passenger traffic on the line. If the traffic
was spread over 12 hours per day, it could be carried on
without difficulty, but the great ina-e of the passengers
had to be conveyed in the course of two [inure in the
morning to the Palace, and back again in about the same
space of time in the evening. It was impossible to run with
safety More than a certain number of trains per hour, or to
attach more than a certain number of carriages to each
train because of the ascent on the branch line to the
Palace. The number of trains per hour was about 10
or 12, and the number of persons conveyed about 500,
so that 5,000 or 6,000 passengers per hour was the ut-
most they could convey to the Palace under the circum-
stances, with safety to the public. In order to afford
more suitable aceammodation to first-class passengers,
particularly ladies arid children, they had made arrange-
ments with the South-Eastern Company to take their
tickets at Forest-hill, instead of • stopping their trains
near the London station for that purpose. They were
also at considerable outlay by widening the line at Ber-
mondsey to avoid interference with the traffic on the
main line. The problem they had to solve with respect to
the accommodation of the Crystal Palace traffic was some-
thing like that of putting a quart into a pint pot. They
ran 36 trains a day on shilling days, and about 21 trains
a day on five-shilling days. '2O of the-e trains ran every
half-hour. He found, after a careful inquiry, that the
trains had only three times missed running regularly at
the time appointed, and in each case it appeared the
people had filled the trains a considerable tune before the
time of starting. The sery irate of the company, seeing
that it was impossible to add more carriages, or to admit
a greater number of people into the trains, had started
them before the hour appointed, and hence the dissp•
pointment that had been complained of by the public
and the press. The failures in running at the appointed
time during a period of 40 days had only occurred three
times, which was beyond the power of the railway
people to prevent. Great credit was dun' to the managers
and other parties in the employment of the company
for carrying on so much traffic without accident. He
did not blame the public for complaining, neither
did he blame the press for making those complaints
known, because he thought it often did good service
in preventing the officials from becoming lethargic,
which, if allowed to exist, would result in making
the railway company the largest sufferers in the
end. He thought the people were reasonable, and that
when matters were properly explained they would not
make uLjust complaints: They might rest assured that
the directors and the officers of the company had done
their best to accommodate the traffic, and to provide for
the requirements of the public, and they would continue
to do so. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. L. SCHUSTER seconded the motion.

In reply to Mr. MAWDESLET,
The CHAIRMAN stated that the expense of conveying
the Crystal Palace traffic was at the rate of about 40
per cent. on the receipts.
Mr. HERAPATH supposed that it was intended to give
them a separate account of the Crystal Palace traffic.
He was aware from the nature of the traffic that there
was immense difficulty in carrying it on within the time
required by the public. He found that the increased
traffic of 44.0001. had involved an increase in the expen-
diture of 22,0001., or 50 per cent., which he supposed
had arisen to a great extent from the general increase
in the price of materialsu.,ed on the line ; as he h I
gone into the subject of increased Al4l
expenditure with
Locke, and they found that an increase of traffic usuallr
y.
caused an increase in the working expenses of from 22
. bad expended
to
T2hsepecrlicAelnittmAomf tirieerninacrrkeaesdedthreacteitpitis.v
would go o
16,0001.13, camntdoutitehveerreysecravaee
(f)fun,rielianyinge'
Ineleaxylng portions of
rt)
eh
ne they i
n introduced
chat the fish joint ; and they
re-
serve until it was exhau4tt d.
at the adopting the report, and de-
rate of 21. Gs. per cent. for
passed
o,,Rriensgolauti
do ni
vs i
due' enr
de
the half-year.
Capt.du YOUNG brnqh
t on his motion with regard to
of Sunday traffic, but the motion was
thenot ti lsco n
seconded.tiiu„ i e ,
The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks to
the chairman aal directors.

ACCIDENT AND Loss OF LIFE ON THE LONDON AND
Is ORM- WESTERN RAILWAY.—LIVERPOOL Thursday.—
The public at Liverpool were rather alarmed to-day by
the non-arrival of the London train due here at 12.40
p.m. Upon inquiry, at the railway station, on the
arrival of the next train (at 2 p.m.), it was reported that
the express train ran into a number of luggage waggons
this morning at the Beechwood tunnel, near Coventry,
on the Trent Valley line, and that the engine driver was
killed, and a policeman belonging to the line seriously
wounded, but none of the passengers were stated to have
been hurt. It was also reported that the points were by
some means misplaced at the place where the accident
occurred, causing the express to run on to another line
of rails, when the luggage train was at a stand-still, The
engine of the express was seriously injured, and several
r of the Carriage; thrown on the