1s. now lowest fare, (e.g., 2s. 6d. return London to Brighton) fixed for Main Lines.
1s. 6d. per ton fixed for goods train or slow service, as the present average for minerals, and allowing present lowest rate for goods in open trucks, rising to, say, 6d. per cwt. (10s. per ton) for small consignments, in covered trucks.
10s. per ton, now lowest “per passenger train” (e.g., 6d. per cwt. for returned empties) fixed for fast service.
(b) The increased traffic dealt with under “Finance.”
(c) The two rates suggested for fast and slow trains solve the difficulty hitherto felt of charging lowest fare of 1d. as uniform fare—the 1s. fare and 10s. goods rate being double the present averages.
[Chapter IV.]
OBJECTIONS TO THE SCHEME.
1.—State Ownership.
Writers for and against—All assume that on Nationalisation, system followed of charging according to distance, and to “what traffic will bear”—Fundamental differences between State Monopoly and Private Monopoly—Evils of applying profits of State monopolies in reductions of taxation—Strikes.