SOUTHERN RAILWAY BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 5 June 1923)

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE)
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time.

§ VISCOUNT YOUNGER OF LECKIE
My Lords, on behalf of the Southern Railway I have been asked to make a very short statement with regard to a point in this Bill. When the Bill was first introduced into your Lordships' House it contained clauses authorising the company to abandon the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway. That railway began, I think, to be worked in 1910. It was closed down in 1916, at which time the rails were taken up and sent to France by order of the Government. The rails have not been restored, or at any rate have not been relaid, and power was asked in this Bill by the company to abandon the line and to realise the site. Considerable opposition was made to that proposal by landowners and others in the district which the railway had served, and petitions were lodged against it on behalf of many local authorities and others.
When the Bill came before the Committee of this House, presided over by Lord Kintore, evidence was given on behalf of the opponents by Colonel Nicholson, M.P., and others to the effect that the railway was promoted by the railway company at the time when a somewhat similar railway was projected by Colonel Nicholson and others to serve the same district, and that upon the understanding that Colonel Nicholson and those associated with him abandoned their own scheme the company agreed to go forward with their proposal and provide 386 and construct the railway. That was done for a considerable period, during the whole of which the line was worked at a heavy loss. After hearing the evidence, the decision of the Committee was given in the following words:— The Committee are of opinion that the clauses for abandonment must be struck out. Although we do not see our way to impose on the Southern Railway Company an obligation to relay and work, yet we hope the company will understand that having regard to the conditions under which this light railway was originally authorised and that the responsibility rests upon railway companies to provide public facilities, not necessarily at a direct profit, it is the opinion of the Committee that the railway company should re-examine the situation in the light of the Committee's view. In view of the decision, and the remarks of the Chairman, the matter has been carefully considered by the directors of the company.
While they are not prepared to accept the proposition that a responsibility rests upon railway companies to provide public facilities not necessarily at a direct profit, they will, in all the circumstances of the case, restore the line and work it as a light railway for some limited period, at any rate, in order to test the result. It is proposed that the line should again be worked for a period of ten years, and if at the end of this time it is found that the line, is still being worked at a loss it is considered that it would be only just and reasonable that the company should then be entitled to reconsider the whole position. I trust that that undertaking will be satisfactory to the Committee and to your Lordships' House.

§ LORD ASKWITH
My Lords, my noble friend has answered a question which I was going to put to him as to whether this railway really is going to be relaid and worked. I should be very glad if he could supplement that information by some statement as to when the railway will be relaid and worked.

§ VISCOUNT YOUNGER OF LECKIE
I am sorry to tell the noble Lord that I am not directly informed on that point, but I understand that the work will be proceeded with forth with, and in any case the line will certainly be worked for a period of ten years.

THE EARL OF KINTORE
My Lords, this Bill is an important omnibus 387 measure of the London and South Western section of the Southern Railway Company, and as it was one of a group of Bills which your Lordships referred for consideration on merits to a Select Committee of which I had the honour to be Chairman, I should like to say a word to supplement what has just fallen from my noble friend. When this Bill came before us all petitions in opposition to a number of its many clauses had been withdrawn, with the single exception of the petition of public bodies, traders, farmers, occupiers and landowners in the hilly district formerly served on the twelve-mile course of the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway against a clause authorising its abandonment. As my noble friend has said, the service of trains was discontinued during the war in order to comply with the urgent request of the Government that all rails not vitally necessary to the service might be lifted and shipped to the theatre of war, and accordingly the rails of this railway were taken up and so shipped.
This Basingstoke and Alton Railway was the first light railway built after the late Lord Jersey's Commission had reported. When it was projected it was recognised that it would have to be worked for some years without any prospect of direct profit, so that from a purely railway point of view the proposal to abandon was not an unnatural one. The case for and against abandonment was ably argued before the Committee by eminent counsel, and in the result, after a careful hearing, we were unanimous in the finding that my noble friend read to your Lordships. I now understand that the board of the Southern Railway lost no time in considering that finding. Although with no surprise, it is with very great satisfaction that I have heard from my noble friend that the board has determined to follow the strong hint we gave them in refusing to sanction abandonment. In deciding to relay and work this light, railway forthwith, the board, in my judgment, have adopted, and with very good grace, a wise, straightforward, and honourable course. I warmly congratulate them, as I do all those who will benefit by their action, on the happy decision to which they have come. Of course I am entirely in sympathy with the contention of my noble friend that after ten years of working the railway company 388 would be entitled to come to Parliament again if, in their opinion, the circumstances warrant that course. It would be only fair and reasonable. I cordially support the Third Reading.

§ VISCOUNT YOUNGER OF LECKIE
May I say that I have ascertained since I spoke that the work is being proceeded with promptly.