The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-19
---- SECOND CLASS" IN ENGLAND.
The Great Increase of Travel By It Or
 the Railroads

The Great Increase of Travel By It On
 the Railroads.
 "The Church Family Newspaper
 publishes number of interviews with
 railway managers regarding the great increase in second-class traffic that has
 taken place of late. MT. Owens,
 general manager of the London and
 Southwestern company, said that in 1895 they set about reorganizing the
 second class, and In 1896, had com-
 pleted arrangements by reducing the second-class fare from -halfpence to five farthings a mile, and charging
 second-class return as single fare and
 three-fourths. At the same time they reduced the first-class twopence a mile The effect has been to resuscitate the
 second class and to arrest it's decline
 Here are the figures" said MT. Owens,
 they speak for themselves. In
 August, 1896 theefirst half-year after
 we had made the change-first class
 showed an increase of 100,671 in number,
 and in money of e6.a74, while second
 class increased lT2,0 ,042 in number and
 over G7,000 in money. The new con-
 ditions had onlyzbeen in operation two
 months then. T6ef. in the next half year-February, A1Ss7-we found that the first class increased in numbers by
 so,ooO, but that the receipts lowing to the considerable reduction in fares) were less by G26S7. But in the second class there was an extraordinary in crease both in numbers and receipts. The number of second-elass passengers had increased by 142,350 and the re- ceipts showed an excess over the pre- vious year of e1s,S04. And bear in
 mind that in previous years we had
 been confronted with shrinkage from
 second class income of no less than
 e10000 year. In the following half year there was a further decrease of 16S,508 in numbers and neary G27000 in
 fares. And last August we found that
 while we carried 25,000 less first-class passengers than in the previous half year, and that the net receipts from this source were G13,320 less, the second class showed an increase of G10665 and of 112,335 in numbers. You
 will admit, then, that our policy of re- ducing the second-class fare has been justified by results"
 Somewhat to the same effect was the evidence vouchsafed to me by the manager of the Great Gestern Railway. We cater to very similar class of the population as the South Western he remarked, "and therefore our experience has been very similar to theirs We, too, have reduced our first and second class fares, and the result has been that we have recovered a great l deal of the higher-class travelling that we found ourselves losing some years ago, when the fares were less popular" From an official of the London and North Western Railway it was learned that similar experimental changes had been made in the reduction of second class fares, and with similar results. They had carried 679,431 more passen- gers by this class and gained a56,S42 | more money by so doing. In fact, the department that showed truly grati- flying increase both in numbers and in money. On the other hand, Edward l Wells, the assistant manager of the Midland Railway, said they had abolished second class ever since the | beginning in 1875, and they had seen no
 reason to regret the step they had taken. The manager of the Metropoli-
 tan Railway stated that his company
 had not found it necessary to abolish