Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-05
LoNDoN's MUNICIPAL STEAMERS
The City's Efforts to Popularize Local
Travel on the Thames.

From Public Opinion
While New York is preparing to open
municipal ferry, London has already inau-
gurated a municipal penny steamer" serv-
ice on the river Thames. This boon for
the people of London has been won after
long and arduouS conflict by the county
council" says the London Review of Re-
views THE silent tideway of the Thames
will be restored TO its ancient uses as the
great highway of London. 1t is almost in
conceivable to the intelligent foreigner that
the citizens of the greatest city of the
world should for years have been practi-
cally deprived of the use of their river for
purposes Of passenger traffic, owing to the
arbitrary whim and self-interested preJu-
dice of a handful of tory peers. The new
passenger service will carry workingmen
the whole length of the course for penny
If they travel before O'Clock in the morn
ing. The regular rate after that hour is a
penny up to three miles, two pence up to
five, threepence up to eight, fourpence up
to eleven and five pence over eleven. Return
tickets are issued at twopence, threepence,
fvepence. sixpence and eightpence. 1t will
be possible, therefore to travel over TWEEN
ty-two miles for eightpence.
by happy inspiration the steamers are
christened in the names OF personages
notable in the history of London 1t is the
first time that many of the citizens have
heard of these departed worthless This is
one of the few serious efforts which have
been made in London by Londoners to re-
mind the public of the historical associa-
lions which cluster round the famous city.
In the cabin of each steamer will be placed
a memorial tablet giving in brief compass
the facts and dates relating to the person
after whom the steamer is named. That
also is but a beginning. From that ire
ducible minimum of biographical informa-
ton 1t may be possible to make every
steamer an automatic professor of London
letters"
The neglect of the Thames as a highway
and means of pleasure is what chiefly
concerns the London Black and White, and
in the opening of the service, in the pres
ence of the Prince Of Wales, ii sees a pos
sibility of change. THE nearest we
get to the royal barges which were wont
to make the Thames joyous are penny
steamers. But If there is no hope of reviv-
ing the aristocratic glories of the river, the
Prince of Wales voyage to Greenwich was
the Inauguration of a laudable attempt on
the part of the county council to bring the
waterway within reach Of the people. How
shamefully it has been neglected Is recog-
nized by all From time to time spasmodc
enterprises have been set on foot, but they
have not been persisted in, and as far as
living memory can go the Thames has been
a partially neglected benefit. The thor
oughly democratic journey taken by his
royal highness on steamboat and train
may be the beginning of better things. Let
us hope it will at least persuade the peo-
pie to educate themselves in the manifold
dignity of London. Nothing is more cal
culated to that end than voyage down
| the river. 1t reveals wonders of wealth
which most Londoners but family
ceive. None can really know what London
means to the world till he has explored
the grimy portions of the river and seen
| the busy seafaring life of the great port.