The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-31 00:00:00

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Why does railway property stand so low in the
market ? How comes it to pass that £300,000,000
of good money invested in good work produce only
upon an average the interest of Consols without
being half as negotiable ? No new questions, these,
certainly. They have been often asked, but they
cannot be asked too often until they are truly
answered. Towards that most desirable exposition
we beg now to contribute one very material fact,
and that is that the fault, wherever it lies, does cer-
tainly not lie with the public. There were two great
parties to these wonderful specimens of national
enterprise—the subscribers who found the money,
and the people who were to provide the returns. No
railway, however thriftily constructed, could ever
have been expected to pay a fair dividend, except
on the supposition that the inhabitants of this
country were to travel five times as much as they
ever did before. The speculation was something
like that of the penny postage. It could only
answer on the presumption that demand would be
indefinitely magnified by the improvement of the
supply, and this demand it devolved on the public
to exhibit. Now, what we say is, that the part of
the public in the transaction has been most liberally
performed. The one thing which has never failed
a railway company is traffic. Whenever directors
have found money's worth,the public has invariably
come forward with money. We do not believe a
single instance could be produced in which a line
fairly suggested by the presumed requirements of
the country has not realised, and far more than
realised, all the returns estimated in respect of the
traffic likely to arise. In that department the cal-
culations have always been sound, and that this
element of success is still as powerful as ever, after
20 years' trial, was plainly to be seen in the remark-
able report of the London and Brighton Company
which we recently published.
The shares of that company stand at 113 or 114,
as high a mark as is reached by the 5 per Cent.
Stock of the Russian Empire, or the 6 per
Cent. Bonds of the Canadian Government.
The dividend declared on the last half-year was
31 per cent., the stock of the line, including
plant, engines, and permanent way, was reported
to be in the best possible order, and credit was

assumed for a " eons-taut improvement goir!g on

daily." Here, then, seems to be a real niodelline,
or, at any rate, as things go generally, a property
of a perfectly satisfactory character. We cannot
exactly forget that all railways were once expected
so confidently to pay upwards of 10 per cent. that
legislative provision was made for the disposal of
the inevitable surplus ; but those were " halcyon
days," and ideas since that time have been consi-
derably brought down. So, when we hear that a
line divides 31 per cent, for the half-year, and
maintains its stock at 10 or 15 per cent. premium,
we naturally ask on what system it has been
managed, and how a state of things so agreeable to
all parties has been brought about. These queries
are very plainly answered in the chairman's speech,
from which statement we learn that the whole

thing has been done by treating the public hand-
somely, and receiving the handsome treatment
which the public gives in return.
The course pursued by the company for the last
ten years has been uniform in principle and uni-
form in result. It has consisted in studying the
accommodation and interests of the public, and re-
lying on this process for producing its own returns.
In no one instance has the system failed. Whenever
trains were made more convenient, and carriages
more commodious, the outlay was replaced imme-
diately by the increase of custom. The directors

took a resolution once of improving the position of
second and third class passengers. They furnished
the second class carriages with stuffed seats and
backs, making them almost as good as first class ;
the old second class vehicles they
.passed over to
third class passengers, and consigned the un-
covered carriages to extinction altogether. " Just
the way," some of our managing friends will
observe, "to cut up first class travelling en-
tirely." Well, it did reduce the number of first
class passengers a little, but it increased the
passengers of the other two classes so very
largely that the decrease on the former head
went for nothing. As to reduction of fares, there
seems to be literally no limit whatever to the com-
mercial paradox that the less the companies ask the
more they receive. The London and Brighton
Directors have diminished their prices so incessantly
since 1848 that the reductions have averaged up-
wards of four distinct abatements in each
year. In some years reductions were made seven
times over. In particular, the charge for season-
tickets had been materially lowered, and the con-
sequence is, that whereas the amount reesived by
the company on this head was £lO,OOO in 1848, it
had risen to £37,000 at the last audit. Taking all
branches of traffic together, the increase during the
period specified was no less than 75 per cent.

- As the secret of all this success the Chairman
observed, that it was a false and foolish policy for
a company " to try to get as much out of the public
as they possibly could." The principle is un-
doubtedly sound. A Railway Company, it is true,
tries naturally to get as much as it can, and what-
ever it gets it must get from the public ; but it
should do this as the London and Brighton does—
by fair allurement, instead of griping extortion—
by enticing people to give, and not by forcing them
to pay. Give the public la. good bargain, and they
will deal so largely with you that you will be sure
of your profit ; try to stint them by " scamped"
work and bad accommodation, and you will infal-
libly lose both your money and credit together.
The experiment about the second-class carriages
illustrates the whole system of railway mana,re-
ment. On many lines it has been a fundamental
principle with the directors to drive passengers
into first-class carriages, and thus swell the amount
received from first-class fares. With this view
second-class carriages were rendered as uncomfort-
able as possible, and second-class fares raised
s
aliaost to the level of the class above them. But
what came of this notable scheme ? Certainly not
expected.
went Pe
what
tickets,a
teras opheneesi,thorerdidtoonekt
travel
at orto other
at all. The fact is that
the public can be easily led,
but can never be
driven. It is very free-handed
with its money, but only on condition that the
meney's worth is forthcoming.
It will not put up
with hard terms or bad
rail-
way carriages comfortaaleusage. Make your b
, your charges low, and
your service effective, and
people in good weather
will almost live on the line as the
Americans do
on their river steamboats. There
shows
is
ing feature about the present age
thanntohe more strik-
ing
of all classes to spend money. It not
onlyreadiness
means, but it proves something more. It
proves
that there is a disposition to enjoyment and
general confidence in the future. It is the • a
opposite
symptom to that of harding, which h s ows itself
when a country is socially stagnant or politically
insecure. Get up any spectacle, ceremony, exhi-
bition, or amusement, and one thing is certain__
that it will not fail for want of patronage. Only
make it really worth seeing or hearing, and the
people who will flock to see and hear it will soon
repay the cost. It is the same with any watering-
place, seaport, or place of recreative resort. When
the season comes, if the offer is truly tempting, the
demand cannot be supplied. The history of the
whole case is simply this—that for one man who
had a sovereign to spend and the will to spend it
60 years since, there are fifty now. 'Whole classes
have entitled themselves to some of the sweets of
existence, and are disposed to taste them. Now,
.nothing could be more advantageous to railways
than the prevalence of a spirit like this, but the
companies must deal with it by gratifying their
Customers, and not by • •
grinding them.—times.