There is, however, one train in France that travels more rapidly for a short distance,—the 1·0 p.m. express from Paris to Rouen. It completes 85 miles without a stoppage in 2 hours 22 minutes, or at the rate of 35½ miles an hour. Comparing this speed with that of the London and Dover express mail trains, it is less by 6½ miles an hour.
There are two express mail trains in Belgium analagous to those between London and Dover. They are the fastest in that kingdom. They complete the 78 miles between Brussels and Ostend in 2 hours and 17 minutes, with 3 short stoppages, or, at the rate of about 34¼ miles an hour.
There is a double daily postal service between Cologne and Berlin. The distance, 391 miles, is accomplished in 12½ hours, or at the rate of a little more than 31½ miles an hour, including stoppages for the refreshment of the passengers, amounting to nearly an hour on the whole journey.
It is a fact well known to railway officials of all grades, but not appreciated by the public, that it is much more difficult to keep time with trains stopping at many stations, than with express trains. Yet the explanation is very easy. People who travel by stopping trains are of totally different habits from those who travel by express. The greater part of the passengers of the former belong to the agricultural classes; and it is just this,—the farmer is not accustomed to be hurried, and he won’t be hurried, neither are the farmer’s wife, the farmer’s sons, the farmer’s daughters; the tradesman in farming towns and villages is like the farmer, he won’t be hurried, and it is the same with the tradesman’s wife, his sons and his daughters; neither will the workman, nor the workman’s wife, nor his sons, nor his daughters, be hurried and flurried. In fact, no one is ever in a hurry, except in large towns and cities. The country was not made for people who are always in a hurry, therefore it is impossible to get country people in and out of trains with the same speed as railway servants can manage with town and city people, and the effect of all this is, a stopping train is, much more frequently than “fast” or express trains, unpunctual, and it is especially so when it exceeds very much its ordinary amount of traffic. It is then sure to be very late, solely from circumstances beyond the control of the company, but of course the company gets all the discredit of the delay. On the other hand, express trains call only at a few first-class stations, and all the passengers’ business can be satisfactorily and comfortably accomplished in the time that the train is compelled to stop while the engine is taking in fuel and water. Let it not be imagined that in this respect “they manage things better in France.” It has been occasionally our misfortune to travel by stopping trains, not only in France, but in other parts of Europe. There is one of two undeviating and unvarying rules with regard to them. Either they are unpunctual, or they are timed for so slow a speed, and with such delays at stations, that unpunctuality by them is impossible. There are many passenger trains on the continent that do not average a running speed of more than fourteen or fifteen miles an hour.
CHAPTER V.
RAILWAYS AND THE POST OFFICE, CONTINUED.
We had written, in the previous chapter, all that relates to the Post Office, in the belief that the relations between that department and the railways had been, during recent years, of an amicable character. We regret however to find that, in this respect, we have been mistaken. The amicable relations exist, on the part of the Post Office, on the surface only, no deeper. The same antagonistic spirit flourishes, at all events in the minds of some of the officials, as resolutely as ever.
Our readers will perhaps remember that, on the 11th March, 1865, a Royal Commission was issued, nominating the Duke of Devonshire, the late Earl of Donoughmore, Lord Stanley, M.P., the Hon. E. F. Leverson Gower, M.P., the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, M.P., Sir Rowland Hill, Messrs. Roebuck, M.P., Dalglish, M.P., G. C. Glyn, M.P., Ayrton, M.P., Colonel Douglas Dalton, R.E., Mr. E. T. Hamilton, and Mr. J. R. McClean, C.E., to make various inquiries respecting railways.