REGULATION OF RAILWAYS. (Hansard, 26 February 1924)

§ Mr. MIDDLETON

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Railways Regulation Acts, 1840 to 1893, and for other purposes relating thereto. This is a small Bill which met the fate of many others last Session, but which, I hope, may be more successful during the coming Session. It will, I know, receive the whole-hearted support of Members on these benches, and I believe it will commend itself to Members on the opposite benches. It is a three-Clause Bill, having for its main object the provision of sleeping accommodation for third-class passengers in all cases where such accommodation is available for first-class passengers. Another provision is to provide automatic locks for doors of express trains, and the third provision is to make every passenger ticket issued for a journey within Great Britain available for use at any time. The main Clause, of course, refers to travelling accommodation. Everybody will agree that sleeping accommodation on the trains of the British Railway Service is a luxury quite outside the purview of the pockets of third-class travellers. I have observed, on many occasions when I have been travelling, the extreme discomfort to which third-class travellers are put when they undertake a long railway journey in this country. I would remind the House that they have it in their power to alter this state of affairs, because the railway companies of this country, being private corporations, owe their charters to the votes of this House, and it is by the good will and sanction of Parliament itself that the railway companies are enabled to carry on their work.

Last Session, I was told in authoritative quarters, that there was quite a friendly feeling towards this Measure in railway circles. I hope that may be so. We do not, of course, ask for third-class passengers the same accommodation as is provided now for first-class passengers. 260 That would be entirely uneconomic. But we do asked that the whole question should be examined. It might be found possible to do something on American lines, and have sleeping berths arranged in longitudinal positions in railway carriages, thereby bringing the whole matter within the economic scope of third-class passengers. On the other point, I would remind the House that there has been a long list of casualties of people who have been able to fall out of railway trains when they have been half asleep or dazed. This could be prevented by a simple device, of which there are many on the market, and which could be investigated if this Bill got into Committee. I hope, therefore, when we ask for the Second reading of the Bill, that it will be given in order that we may have an opportunity of examining it in Committee and thrashing out whatever difficulties the companies believe to exist and establish once and for all whether it is a feasible proposal or not. The Bill, I believe, in some form or another has been before the House for many years, and I sincerely hope that with the advent of a Labour Government we shall at last be able to do some of the things for third-class passengers for which they have been crying out for so many years.