Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

“The railway companies, on the other hand, complain that whilst by law the award should bind both parties for three years, the Post Office practically possesses the power of at once putting an end to it, if they consider it too high, by requiring some alteration of service, which may be a mere nominal alteration, and thus the Post Office may go on asking for fresh arbitrations until they get an award to their liking. The Post Office authorities deny that there has been any abuse of this power. The railway companies further complain that, by means of the book and parcel post, the Post Office has entered into competition with the railway companies for an important branch of their traffic.

“The Post Office is anxious that a fixed tariff for the conveyance of mails should be introduced into Acts of Parliament. The experience which has been already acquired must, by this time, suffice to enable a fair and remunerative tariff to be affixed to every service required to be rendered by the ordinary trains of the company, and the only reason why some fixed scale does not appear to have been adopted by some general Act is, that the Post Office has never urged it upon the consideration of Parliament on a satisfactory basis for legislation.

“It is quite clear, however, that at the present time legislative interference in this question has either gone too far or not far enough. If the Post Office had originally been left free to make its bargains with railway companies, it would probably have obtained greater facilities at lower rates than it now possesses, for the railway companies largely benefit by postal communication, and the feeling of the directors would obviously be to assist it; but the fact of the service being compulsory, to some extent neutralises such a feeling.

“We recommend, as the best course under existing circumstances, that a general Act of Parliament be passed to define all those points which have given rise to difficulties between the Postmaster-General and the railway companies; but we do not deem it expedient to enter into the details of the arrangements to be embodied in the Act. We merely point out that these services may be classed under two heads, viz.,—first, services analagous to services rendered to the public; secondly, services in trains to be run at special hours to be fixed by the Postmaster-General.

“The first class, viz.: services by trains when railway companies fix the time of starting and stopping, may be grouped under the following heads, viz.,—first, mails in charge of railway companies without Post Office guards; second, mails in charge of guards on Post Office responsibility; third, compartments, or one or more carriages.

“For this class of services a tariff might be fixed by a general Act. And if the Postmaster-General were to enter into communication with the railway companies, we see no reason to doubt that an equitable scale for these services would be agreed upon.

“For the second class of services, viz.: where the Postmaster-General fixes the time of starting or stopping, or requires an exclusive or limited train, the question of the proper remuneration for the service performed should still be left to arbitration.

“We have no evidence that the provisions of the Act which we have quoted in a former part of our report, allowing the Postmaster-General to override an award which is otherwise binding on a railway company, have ever been abused by him. We think such a power necessary for the public interests, and have not, therefore, suggested any alteration of the law in this respect.

“Another branch of traffic carried on in passenger trains, is the conveyance of parcels. The railway companies complain that the Post Office abstracts from them a large portion of this class of traffic, by means of the parcel post. The Post Office contend that the necessity for extending the parcel post has arisen from the inefficient way in which the railway companies have performed the parcel service; and the services which the Post Office under its Acts of Parliament is entitled to perform, seem to be limited to printed and written matter, and patterns.