§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether any steps have been taken to require the Highland Railway Company to run its trains in accordance with the observations made by Major Marindin, in reference to the collision on the Highland Railway, at Tain, on the 28th of March last, that he had no hesitation in recommending that the Highland Railway Company should be informed that working under rules which admit of a train shunting on a line under the protection of one signal, and that a distant signal, when another train is actually approaching from the opposite direction, cannot be considered as block-working within the meaning of the Act; whether any penalty will be imposed for this breach of the Act; whether the signalman at Tain every alternate week is on duty 15 hours per day, less two hours for meals, and that the guard and brakesman are engaged an excessive number of hours; whether ho has issued any Order prohibiting the Highland Railway Company from working their employés an undue number of hours; and whether he is aware that Major Marindin's Report on this accident is neither in the Library of the House nor obtainable iu the Vote Office?
§ MR. BRYCEThe Board of Trade are in communication with the Highland Railway Company on the subject of paragraph 1. Obedience to an Order of the Board made under the Regulation of Railways Act, 1889, may be enforced by the Railway Commissioners, and the question of imposing a penalty is for them. The Board have called upon the Company to make a Return of the hours worked by the servants of the classes in question. I have caused a copy of the Report to be sent to the hon. Member.