By way of compensation to the companies, and with a view also to the advantage of the public, I proposed, “subject to such regulations as Parliament may impose for securing fairness towards all parties interested, to adopt a territorial division of the surface of the kingdom, reserving, as open to new companies, any district in which the public interests would be served by the construction of new and independent lines, but assigning to each existing company”—on certain specified conditions—“so much of the district on each side of its line as can be most advantageously served by such company; a provision being made that, if at any time the Railway Commissioners should be of opinion that the public interests require that a railway of a given description should be made within such assigned territory, it shall be competent to the Commissioners to call upon the company to which the district is so assigned to construct the line, with the consent of Parliament; and if the company refuse or neglect so to do within a given time, to offer the line to the public at large.”
I further proposed that these arrangements should apply compulsorily to all companies hereafter to be formed, but that “each existing company should have the option, within a certain period, to accept the same conditions, or to continue in its present condition.”
The following advantages, among others, would, I expected, result from the proposed arrangements:—
1. It would secure the cheap conveyance of the mails, and greatly promote the extension and perfection of the system of Post Office distribution.
2. It would secure the establishment of moderate fares, without resorting to competition, which it is now generally admitted would be as injurious to the public as to the companies.
3. It would secure the completion of the railway system at the least expenditure of capital, and in a manner most conducive to economy in working.
4. It would repress rash and unprincipled speculation; and
5. It would relieve Parliament from the drudgery of investigating hastily-devised and useless projects.
As regards the interests of the companies, I pointed out that—
1. It would relieve them from the ruinous expenditure now necessary to defend their property from aggression.