§ Captain BOWYERasked the Minister of Transport the number of engines and trucks at work on all railways of this country on 1st August, 1919; whether he will give similar figures to show the conditions to-day; and whether he will make arrangements to issue monthly statements giving the number of engines and trucks at work on all railways?
§ Mr. NEALNo information is available as to the rolling stock position on the 1st August, 1919, but I would refer the hon. and gallant Member to the statement issued in connection with the Ministry of Transport Estimates, 1920–1921, Command Paper 694 (page 8), in which particulars are given of the number of engines and waggons in traffic on the 16 principal railways on the 30th June and the progress made to 31st December, 1919. Since 31st December there has been a net increase of 91 in locomotives put into traffic on the same railways and a net increase of 4,249 in the available railway wagon stock. I shall be pleased to arrange for particulars of the locomotives and trucks available for traffic to be included in1256W future in the four-weekly Return of Railway Statistics of which the first issue has already been published.