§ MR. BEITH (Inverness, &c.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that much agitation exists in the Northern Counties of Scotland regarding the Order of the Board of Trade as to the marshalling of mixed trains on the Highland Railway; that the Directors declare, if the Order be enforced, that the number of mixed trains must be largely reduced, causing the greatest inconvenience to the sparse population in these Highland counties and small coast towns, to which such travelling accommodation is of the utmost value; if he is further aware that the Highland Railway Company have worked the existing system of mixed trains for nearly 40 years, to the entire satisfaction of the general public and with remark able freedom from accident or loss; that the Directors believe that "The Railway Regulation Act, 1889," allows ample discretion to the Board of Trade in respect of the Order complained of; and that, in addition to dislocating their working arrangements, compliance with the Order would entail a largo capital expenditure for loop sidings, besides outlay in fitting and working their trains with the automatic brake, which they assert the experience of nearly 40 years proves not to be required; and whether, in these circumstances, the Board of Trade will insist upon enforcing the Order?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. MUNDELLA,) Sheffield, BrightsideI am aware of the agitation with regard to the Order made by the Board of Trade in February, 1891. That Order directed the Highland Railway Company, among other things, to provide on all their trains carrying passengers continuous automatic brakes before the 31st December next. The Railway Regulation Act, 1889, was passed by Parliament in the interests of public safety. It was clearly the intention of the Legislature that continuous automatic brakes should be provided, if not 1867 for every vehicle on trains carrying passengers, certainly upon all those vehicles in which passengers are conveyed. This cannot be done under present arrangements if the goods waggons in a mixed train are placed in front of the passenger vehicles. Although the Board of Trade are willing to allow a limited number of mixed trains, it is an invariable condition that in such trains passenger carriages must be placed in front, so as to allow of their being provided with a continuous brake. The Highland Railway is one with severe curves and steep gradients, and upon such a railway it is especially necessary that the travelling public and the servants of the Company should have that protection which is afforded by continuous brakes. The absence of such protection has led to many accidents in various parts of the United Kingdom, and to several such accidents on the Highland Railway itself. Compliance with the Order may involve the Company in some expense, but not to the extent referred to by the hon. Member. I am unable to exempt the Highland Railway Company from au obligation which has been willingly accepted by all the principal Railway Companies of the United Kingdom, and by so doing to allow them to endanger the safety of their servants and the travelling public.
§ MR. BEITHIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Highland Railway Company comply with all the terms of the Order, with the exception of that one term affecting their method of marshalling mixed trains; and whether, in all the circumstances, he will consent to postpone the term at which the Order in this respect would be put into operation?
MR. MUKDELLAI am aware that the Company has complied with all the principal conditions except one, and that principal condition it is impossible to forego.