HC Deb 19 October 1908 vol 194 cc760-1
MR. DALZIEL (Kirkcaldy Burghs)

I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether the contract for carrying the 8 p.m. night mail from London to Edinburgh and the North of Scotland is with the London and North-Western and Caledonian Railways only, or whether any portion of the contract is with the North British Railway; and, if so can he state to what part of that Company's system the contrat applies.

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON

The great bulk of the mails for Scotland are conveyed by the special postal mail train which leaves London (Euston Station) at 8.30 p.m. and reaches Aberdeen at 7.35 a.m. This train is run under contracts with the London and North-Western and Caledonian Railway Companies. Some of the mails for Edinburgh and the North of Scotland are conveyed by the 8.25 p.m. train from King's Cross by the East Coast route, under the general contracts with the Great Northern, North-Eastern and North British Companies, but the hours of the train are fixed by the Companies concerned to suit their own traffic.

MR. DALZIEL

Do the North British Railway Company receive payment for carrying the mails from Edinburgh to Aberdeen?

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON

There is no specific subsidy for that, but there are fixed rates of payment; these give us no control over the trains.

MR. DALZIEL

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the train which carries the mails from Edinburgh to Aberdeen does not stop at many important centres, the letters for which are in consequence delayed at Edinburgh six hours. Cannot an arrangement be made for it to stop and leave the mails?

MR. SYDNEY BUXTON

I do not know to which train the hon. Member refers, but I shall be pleased to consider any representations he may send to me.