Faster Freight.

Service to the public is the keynote of successful railway working, and with a view to meeting the ever-insistent call of the trading community for speedy transit, new fast goods train runs are being introduced on the group railways. In a lecture recently delivered to a railway audience at the York divisional headquarters, Mr. R. Bell, Assistant General Manager of the London and North Eastern Railway, emphasised the desirability of speeding-up freight business. In this way, it was remarked, whilst road competition is effectively countered, the cost of fast freight train working is by no means so high as might be imagined. For the track is thus cleared promptly, locomotives run a larger mileage, and the wagons are turned round in quick time. Fast freight train operation gives intensive production of transport at a price which is not excessive in comparison with the average cost of the train-mile, while for every mile the fast freight covers, it earns half as much again as the slow goods, because it conveys a fair load of high-class merchandise.

Coincident with the speeding up of freight train services at Home, there is being undertaken the issue of special time-tables for public use covering goods train services in the various areas. The passenger train time-table is, of course, one of the oldest of railway publications. On the freight side, the issue of public time-tables is quite a new venture. Following the lead set by the Pennsylvania Railway, in America, the London and North Eastern Railway has recently put out a most useful freight train time-table, covering goods train working in the Newcastle-on-Tyne area. This venture forms part of the railway effort to meet road competition, and the page 19 new publication clearly demonstrates to the public the speedy character of the service given goods traffic by rail.