This annual amount could be provided by the following further increase in passenger and goods traffic respectively, viz.:—
| 100,000,000 | passengers | at | 1/- | £5,000,000 |
| 10,000,000 | ” | ” | 4/- | 2,000,000 |
| 30,000,000 | tons | ” | 10/- | 15,000,000 |
| Total | £22,000,000 | |||
In these estimates no account has been taken of the increased revenue of the Post Office, nor the increase in Local passengers and slow goods traffic respectively, which is sure to be realised, and the receipts for which would probably cover any increase in working expenditure. It will be noticed that if the above increase should be obtained the total estimated increase of passengers over the present totals would be as follows:—
| Passengers | 350,000,000 or about 21% |
| Goods | 78,000,000 or about 15% |
It is, of course, not essential to the success of the scheme that the whole of the increase here estimated should be obtained in the first year after nationalisation has been carried out, although it is considered that even in that short period, according to all precedents, so small a percentage of profits may fairly be anticipated. It would probably be necessary for the Government to raise a temporary loan for initiating the scheme, but in any case it appears essential that the purchase of the whole of the existing undertakings of the United Kingdom should be completed as at one and the same date.
Other advocates of railway nationalisation suggest that the purchase should be carried out gradually, and this course has been followed by other nations. It is, however, of the very essence of the scheme here proposed that every part of the country shall have the benefit of the uniform fares and rates, and this would be impracticable unless the whole system be taken over by the Government at one time.
The proposal that the price should be fixed by taking the mean price of stocks for the three years preceding the year in which the Act should be passed, is in order to avoid the market changes which might be caused by anticipation of purchase by the State. It is suggested that whatever price is taken as the basis of the purchase money, such price should include everything, so that the whole undertaking would be taken over without the necessity for any valuation of stock and plant, a prolific cause of so much trouble and expense, as in the case of the purchase of the National Telephone Company.
It may be said that the figures of the railway systems are so vast that it would be impracticable to cope with them in one transaction. Enormous as the figures must necessarily be, the principle is exactly the same as in other financial transactions. Just as the Government acquired the undertaking of the National Telephone Company by purchase, which took effect on one day, so can this much larger transaction, or series of transactions, be carried out. It is assumed that the existing shares and stocks of railway companies would be converted into Government Stock, all necessary apportionments being made up to a date to be named in the Act of Parliament authorising the acquisition of the railways. Upon such date the completion of the whole transaction will be deemed to be effected.