§ MR. JACKS (Stirlingshire)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if his attention has been called to the great inconvenience caused to the travelling public by Railway Companies so covering their stations with advertisements as to make it impossible to observe the names of the stations; whether he will in future cause a clause to be inserted in all new Railway Bills to prevent this evil; and if he can do anything with the existing lines to remedy this cause of inconvenience?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. BRYCE, Aberdeen, S.)Yes, Sir; the inconvenience is a great one, especially in London, and generally on stations of lines in or near great cities. I should be glad to do anything to remedy it; and, so far as new railways are concerned, the evil will be met by the re- 1207 quirement of the Board of Trade that Barnes of stations are to be shown on boards and on platform lamps. I have, however, no power of compulsion as regards existing stations.
§ MR. MACDONA (Southwark, Rotherhithe)inquired if the names of the stations, when reached, could not be exhibited in the railway carriages by some means?
§ MR. BRYCEreplied, that no doubt that would be very convenient, but the mechanism necessary for it would add to the expense. He preferred to take the simpler course of requiring the names of stations to be shown in such a way as to prevent their being mistaken for advertisements or notices.