§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will state when the system of electric traction will be introduced on the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. GERALD BALFOUR, Leeds, Central)I have been in communication with the two railway companies referred to, and in reply the Metropolitan Railway Company inform me that they are proceeding rapidly with the equipment of electric traction on their part of the Inner Circle, and on a section of their ex- 954 tension line to Harrow, and that the working of the railway by electricity depends upon the completion of their generating station at Neasden, with which considerable progress has been made, and which, according to the contract, is to be finished by the end of the year. The Metropolitan District Railway Company state that they expect to open a section of their line, six files in length, between South Harrow and Ealing, for electrical working in the course of a few weeks, and add that the working of the main line by electric traction depends upon the date of the completion of the Power House at Lot's Road, Chelsea, which is being pressed forward with the greatest possible speed.