§ MR. POWER (Waterford, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that, notwithstanding the assurance given to his Department by the District Railway Company as to providing adequate accommodation for those using their line, except during certain hours of the mornings and evenings many of their trains consist only of three carriages; will the Board of Trade see that the company does what it can to obviate the overcrowding, which is principally caused by the fewness of the carriages composing the trains.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. LLOYD-GEORGE, Carnarvon Boroughs)The railway company inform me that the loading of their trains is constantly under supervision, and that, except during the busy hours of the morning and evening, three or four-car trains arc sufficient, unless there is a sudden or abnormal rush of traffic.
§ MR. POWERI beg to give notice that on the first opportunity I will draw attention to the shameful overcrowding that takes place.
§ MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E)Will the right hon. Gentleman give his personal attention to this matter? It is the experience of many Members that there is constant overcrowding.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEI have given the matter my personal attention, and I took the trouble of communicating personally with the railway company. I sent one of the inspecting officers of the Board of Trade there after what I saw myself. I thought it was rather dangerons, I must say. Since then, however, I think there has been considerable improvement.
§ MR. POWERI can assure the right hon. Gentleman that, as a rule, there are only three-car trains except morning and evening.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEI agree that that is the case during periods of the day which are rather slack, but it is not the case in the evening, when the overcrowding takes place. After all, we do not want to enforce on a railway company the obligation to run empty carriages, especially when, on the whole, the company is not paying. One must take that into consideration.