So long as fares are determined by arbitrary conditions, little can be done to increase the revenue on an electric tramway system. Such matters as the weather and the extent of building operations have far more influence on tramway traffic than anything the tramway manager can do to assist it. Apart from the development of parcels traffic, his best opportunities lie in the skilful adjustment of the service to the varying needs of the public, so that the 'rush' hours find an adequate supply of cars, while the quieter hours find no 'waste car mileage' in the form of empty cars. He can also do a good deal in the way of inducing the drivers not to waste current. By putting an electricity meter on each car it is possible to check the current consumption and, by a system of bonuses, to encourage the economical driver. There are many other directions in which small financial leakages may be arrested, giving an aggregate saving which is well worth the trouble.
Fig. 6. Photograph of an electric trolley omnibus built by the Railless Electric Traction Company Ltd. in 1909 and operated at Hendon for experimental purposes. Later cars built by this company are of a lighter and simpler design, but the illustration shows clearly the arrangement of a double trolley for supplying current to a vehicle which 'steers' like an ordinary motor omnibus.
The fact remains, however, that on the whole the electric tramway business depends upon too narrow a margin between costs and receipts. The recognition of this fact, coupled with the legislative difficulties already described, led to the practical cessation of tramway development in Great Britain at a point far short of what was once expected. At one stage, no doubt, people were a little too enthusiastic about electric traction. They imagined that electric traction would create profitable traffic along the most deserted of side streets. Acting on that theory, municipalities constructed—or forced tramway companies to construct—lines along roads which could never supply enough traffic to justify the expenditure involved. The interest on capital and other standing charges for an electric tramway route are so substantial that a certain minimum of traffic density must exist before any profit at all can be earned.
However, after every allowance is made for such local excesses of enthusiasm, the under-developed condition of electric traction in Great Britain remains conspicuous enough. A sensible relaxation of legislative restrictions would go a long way to improve matters—if, that is to say, financiers could be induced to re-enter a field in which they have had many disappointments.
Great hopes of improvement were entertained when the Light Railways Act, 1896, was passed. The primary object of this Act was to encourage the building of cheap railways for agricultural and fishery purposes, but it was drafted on lines broad enough to include electric tramways. Arrangements were made for State and local contributions to the cost of such schemes, in cases where subsidies appeared to be justifiable. The procedure in obtaining powers was made as simple and as economical as possible. Applications for 'Light Railway Orders' had to be made to the Light Railway Commission, one of whose members then arranged to hold a local inquiry into the proposal. If sanctioned, the scheme was passed on to the Board of Trade for approval, and the Order, if confirmed, thus secured the validity of a Private Act of Parliament.
Nothing was said in this Act about the consent of local authorities, or about limited tenure, or about expropriation upon scrap-iron terms. But the Light Railway Commissioners chose to interpret the Act in terms of the Tramways Act, with the result that, when there was any opposition on the part of local authorities, the tramway promoter using the Light Railways Act was not much better off than before. He had to face a new difficulty in a clause of the Light Railways Act, which provided that when the proposed light railway was of sufficient magnitude and in such a position that it offered competition with an existing railway, the scheme should be submitted to Parliament as a Private Bill—that is to say, should face the most costly and cumbersome procedure of all.
The Light Railways Act thus proved a great disappointment. Its failure to afford relief seems to have taken away the tramway promoter's last hope of genuine legislative betterment. He has resigned himself to things as they are; and the utmost he does is to assert, when occasion offers, that there are many districts which might enjoy the benefits of electric traction if means were provided for bringing every scheme directly before an independent tribunal for consideration on its merits alone; if arrangements were made for obtaining wayleaves and land on favourable terms, and if he were allowed to construct and equip the line on a less costly basis than the Board of Trade now demands, even in rural districts.