CAPTAIN DONELANI beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that the steamer express between Euston and Liverpool performs the journey at a, rate of over 50 miles an hour, and that on the Great Northern line the distance from King's Cross to Grantham (105½ miles) is covered at the rate of 52 miles an hour, notwithstanding a series of severe gradients, while the rate of speed of the mail trains between London and Holyhead is only about 4.'i miles an hour; and whether, in view of the negotiations now in progress between the Post Office and the London and North Western Railway Company relative to the acceleration of the Irish mails, and the importance of the question, he will bring these facts to the notice of the Company?
THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. A. MORLEY, Nottingham, E.)The hon. Member somewhat over-estimates the speed of the American steamer expresses between Euston and Liverpool, which is a little over 48, not 50, miles an hour, but he is right in saying that on the Great Northern line some of the express trains cover the distance between King's Cross and Grantham at the rate of 52 miles an hour. These speeds, however, are attained by unbroken running from point to point, but the Irish mail train has stops to make and mails to pick up on the way, besides maintaining several important junctions, for all of which allowance of time must be made. If the speed of the Irish mail train be taken merely as between the stopping stations—say, between Euston and Rugby—it will be found to be not 43 miles an houronly but 47½, or only half a mile behind the speed of the American 214 expresses. While thus answering the hon. Member's question, I am fully alive to the desirableness of obtaining any acceleration which is practicable in the running of the Irish mail train.