§ MR. GRAHAMI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the nuisance of railway whistles at night from the coal traffic on the London and North Western and Midland Railways in Camden and Kentish Town; whether he would endeavour to put a stop to the practice; and whether any accident has ever been reported as having taken place in consequence of the whistling having been temporarily suspended?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. MUNDELLA,) Sheffield, BrightsideThe Board of Trade have no authority, and it would not be compatible with the necessities of railway working, to stop the practice of whistling on railways. I have communicated with the Railway Companies concerned, and I am assured there has been no unnecessary whistling. In the case of an accident at Finsbury Park, 10th February, 1886, Major Marindin, the inspecting officer, who reported on the circumstances, states that the
driver of one of the trains concerned in the collision had not, during the time he was standing waiting for the signal to start, sounded his whistle, and had it not been for an order to avoid any unnecessary whistling in consequence of complaints of the nuisance caused thereby he would have been greatly to blame for not doing so.