In Belgium there is practically no such competition as exists in this country. The Government have had to face the difficult questions respecting it: they have solved them in a manner different from that adopted here. They have entered into an agreement for the division of competitive traffic between the State railways and the Grand Central Belge. Under this arrangement the route over which the traffic is conveyed is credited with the whole of the terminals, and 50 per cent. of the carrying receipts. The remaining 50 per cent. is apportioned between the two competing routes on the following basis, viz:—
Each route is credited with 25 per cent. if the mileage is equal.
The longest route is credited with
| 22½ per cent. if the mileage does not exceed the | |
| shortest route by 5 per cent. | |
| 18 ” ” | ” ” 10 ” ” |
| 13½ ” ” | ” ” 15 ” ” |
| 9 ” ” | ” ” 20 ” ” |
| 4½ ” ” | ” ” 25 ” ” |
The route selected by either the State railways or the Grand Central Belge must not exceed the distance by the shortest route by more than 25 per cent.; above which limit all competition ceases.
In Germany exist arrangements practically amounting to a division of traffic. For instance, the shortest route from Elberfeld to Bâle is viâ Coblenz-Strasburg. The traffic to Bâle is carried every alternate month by the Right Rhenish route over the Badisch State railway, and by the Left Rhenish route over the Alsace-Lorraine railways. As regards traffic with Austria-Hungary arrangements are made which ensure to each line a certain percentage. In the event of the returns showing that one company have not carried their fixed share, they are entitled to a money compensation.
Undoubtedly the suggestion of Sir B. Samuelson that reductions should be made in the expenses of working railways, and that undue competition should be avoided by arrangements between the companies, is important and well worthy of consideration. To commerce generally, and to the traders using railways, it might clearly be advantageous. It may, however, be premature to expect that at present such agreements as he suggests would be sanctioned by Parliament, except upon onerous conditions. If such agreements were favourably regarded by the representatives of commerce and agriculture in Parliament, the companies would more willingly enter into them. In many cases greater economy and improved working would undoubtedly result, and there is no reason why such arrangements should not be made beneficial to the public as well as fair to the railway companies.
SECTION XVI.
RAILWAYS AND CANALS.
Great stress is laid on the importance of canals. Railway companies have been accused of preventing them from competing with railways, of improperly getting possession of them, not maintaining them, and so acting as to force the traffic on to their lines. In Parliament and elsewhere they have been charged with purchasing canals and then deliberately killing them, either by ceasing to keep them in repair or by reducing rates upon their lines to a point which makes competition by the canals impossible. These assertions have been made before Royal Commissions and Select Committees. In no official report or other authoritative document, however, have they been declared proved; and it is submitted that facts do not warrant them. Not to the artifices of railway companies, but to altered conditions of trade is due, in the main, the inability of many canals to hold their own against railways. The necessity for rapid transit, the disinclination to keep large stocks, the growth of the practice of applying to the producer or manufacturer as orders come in, and as occasion requires, and the low rates by railway for articles which canals can convey, have all been unfavourable to the latter. It is not unimportant to note that no Commission or Committee has been able to point out any mode in which the decline of canal traffic—“the creeping paralysis of our inland waterways”—could be arrested. We may, too, incidentally note the considerable diversity of opinion as to the importance of canals generally. Some complain that great injury has been done to the trading community by the absorption of the canals by railway companies.[105] Others will have it that too much importance is attached to canals; they have been even described as “those wretched little waterways which could never compete successfully with the great railway companies.”[106]