§ Mr. JODRELL (by Private Notice)asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade whether the Estimates of the increased cost of running the railways given in the Debate on the Ways and Communications Bill and those given in the White Paper were made by the same Department?
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANMy answer to a supplementary question asked yesterday by my right hon. Friend the Member for the Duncairn Division of Belfast, to the effect that the estimate referred to by him was not made by the Board of Trade, I think conveyed an erroneous impression.
The figures of 90 to 100 millions given in the Debate on the Ways and Communications Bill by the Minister-designate represented an estimate framed by the Railway Executive Committee for the President of the Board of Trade of the increased cost of working during the current year as compared with 1913.
These figures have since been revised and increased to the total of 104 to 109 millions, in view of further settlements 171 arrived at with the railwaymen's unions, and subsequent increase in the cost of materials, and appear in the White Paper presented to Parliament. They do not represent the net deficiency during the year, but the estimated increased cost of working, on the basis of the traffic of 1913.