Luxury Travel for Summer Trippers

Summer holiday travel on an exceptionally big scale is this year being catered for by the railways of the Homeland. July, August and September are the months most favoured by the vacationist, and at this season family travel to the seaside looms large on every route. Cheap fares, fast and frequent train services, and, above all, the provision of most luxurious passenger accommodation, are features of this year's summer holiday programme. There probably never was a time when the holiday-maker was afforded such a wide choice of luxury accommodation as is the case to-day. To every resort of note, corridor, saloon and Pullman coaches are being operated, and it is now actually possible for the Londoner to make a day or even a half-day trip to the seaside and back by luxurious Pullman trains of a type hitherto reserved for the exclusive use of the traveller by the expensive “limited” services.

In this enterprising introduction of the Pullman car into excursion service a lead has been set by the L. and N. E. line. This system has embarked upon a great many Pullman services since the conclusion of the Great War, and these luxury services have proved most popular and remunerative. Pullman cars were, of course, first introduced on the American railways by George Mortimer Pullman, the Chicago coach-builder. The British Pullman organisation, established in 1874, is quite distinct from the American undertaking, and it is by arrangement with the Pullman Car Company of England that the Home railways now offer these luxurious cars to the public. The Southern Railway, or rather the various component parts of this railway prior to grouping, were the pioneers of the Pullman in Britain. The world-famous “Southern Belle” Pullman Limited between London and Brighton, introduced twenty years ago, was the embryo out of which have sprung the innumerable Pullman services which to-day are placed at the disposal of the traveller over the Home railways.

One million eight hundred thousand passengers are conveyed annually by Pullman service in Great Britain. Apart from the “Southern Belle” service, the Southern Railway operates Pullman cars between London and Hastings, Eastbourne, Portsmouth, Ramsgate, and other holiday resorts, while an outstanding Pullman service is that between London and Dover, Folkestone and Newhaven, in connection with the Continental boat sailings. The “Golden Arrow Pullman,” between London and Dover, is one of the world's most famous trains, and it is operated in connection with the special limited Pullman train run by the Northern Railway of France between Calais and Paris. On the L. and N.E. line, luxury travel is provided by the “Queen of Scots” Pullman between London (King's Cross) and Glasgow, via Harrogate, Newcastle and Edinburgh; and the Pullman limited trains operated between London and Leeds, and London and Harwich. There is a complete service of Pullman trains page 20 in Scotland on the Caledonian section of the L.M. and S. Line; the Metropolitan Railway operate Pullman cars on the London-Aylesbury route, and in Ireland, a regular daily service of Pullman buffet cars is run between Dublin and south-western points.