RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS, TIMER PROGRESS AND HINDRANCE.
Tax railway world is heaving," as the penny-a-liner says, with ideas of _improvement, big and little ; but every improvement is first incubated in the hard-shelled form of "question," over which there is commonly more cackling than hatching. Yet most questions between the railways and the public,—whether of fares, parcels, luggage, or anything else,—oan be easily solved by the simplest principles. Take the new question. The Commercial traveller necessarily carries with him a certain amount of luggage consisting of samples ; and he is charged for the excess in the same proportion with a private traveller who uses the railway at comparatively rare intervals; though the commer- cial traveller is constantly on the move, as a frequent cus- tomer necessarily returns a. large amount of profit to the railway, might reasonably expect a certain discount on the gross emolument of the line, and by his perpetual going and re- coming in fact pays even a larger proportion on a given amount of luggage than an ordinary traveller does. Judging the ease by the common rule of averages, in the charge for weight, for conveyance, and for collection of payment, the commercial tra- veller might be allowed some degree of licence. In addition to which, it must be remembered that his activity creates no small amount of other commercial travelling and of goods traffic. The true principle for the company to be guided by is, the creation of business at a reasonable profit, and not the exaction of the largest payment at one specific time.
The true principle for the company in all cases is, to serve the convenience of the public, and this sound maxim is gradually obtaining extended acceptance, but very slowly : some of the newest improvements are in fact admissions of the degree to which the railway companies have procrastinated the very means of increasing their business and revenue. How many years is it since Mr. Rowland Hill suggested a plan for diminishing the de- lays of railways and mail-coaches by dropping and picking up parcels in mid. career ? More recently, on some minor hues, railway companies have adopted the plan of dropping carriages in the rear of a train, instead of stopping at a station. M. Gnichard Petrus, a French civil engineer, has designed the construction of a train which would permit portions of it to be left behind at the several stations, or taken on, without stopping. According to his arrangement there would be a drawbridge or gangway between all the carriages of a train. On approaching a station, passengers who desired to stop there, would pass into the sternmost carriage, which would be detached and left behind, without arresting the train. "Trains indeed," says M. Guichard, "need only stop two or three times a day to allow opportunities for refreshment."
On the Great Western Railway of Canada has been adopted a new improvement which supplies railway travellers with sleeping berths. The carriage is divided longitudinally b. y a partition, on each side of which are three tiers of berths, as in a steamer ; one side is reserved for -gentlemen, the other for ladies and children. The space between the berths and the window on each side is filled up by single seats in each compartment. The berths are furnished with spring mattresses and. pillows, covered with damask and quilting ; appliances for dressing are provided, withproper attend- ance. The charge for this accommodation is said to be half a dollar in addition to the ordinary fare. Now this improvement is very important in itself, and is peculiarly adapted for the fast life of England. Many a man has business to transact in several places at short intervals, and by this plan he can combine travel- ling and repose ; accomplishing both in that part of the twenty- fours which cannot be used for business. But Canada is before our enterprising railway directors. Quite recently, indeed, an improvement, very simple but very valuable, has been imported from the United States to this country—it is in the swinging of the carriages. The carriage is constructed as tonal, but instead of resting on wheels in the ordinary way—four or six—it rests upon a pair of wheels at each end ; the wheels are attached to a platform which is attached to the carriage by a pivot, and on that the carriage freely The effect is that at n bend • in 'the line - the direction of the curve, over which the carriage pasSeS With
in- creased smoothness and safety.
There is no reason, however, why all these improvements, with many others which are Introdueed separately in distant plans, should not be combined ; mid any company Which cOuld render its line a ttiodel railway would most assuredly be repaid, not simply by drawing business from other lines, but by inereasitr - the absolute amount °fits Own Custom. Prebably one of the firit improvements would be to render the carriagiei.operi Throughout,' like those on the American plan. It is supposed, indeed, that ottr carriages, divided into three Compartments, are more " exclusive" than the American —more private ; but the reauft is exactly .the reverse. Any party, except one numbering Six or eight, is ex-. posed to the annoyance Of being placed in the elonest temporary contiguity with strangers; the separation front other passengers, who might neutralize the intruder; being sometimes a painful nuisance, sometimes areallydangerous hazard. The use of open carriages woUld'faCilitate many other improvements,' 'inch' as the minimizing Of stoppages by the dropping Of they rearWnid ear-. riage, the construction of sleeping apartnietits, and, above all, that easy introduction of attendance and of refreshment dun• the day, which would render the railway-carriage the inlan counterpart of the "floating hotel," ;the steatnehip. Railway-tra- velling wpuld thus become no hindrance to the business of life, - but it would combine the expediting of business With repose and refreshment. How-much of English social life would then actually be spent On the rail!
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