Co-Operation In Britain's Railway Industry.

In recent years one of the most conspicuous features in the Home railway industry has been the increasing growth of pooling policies and co-operative working among the different systems serving the country. At the moment there is considerable speculation regarding the future of the four big group undertakings, and in some quarters it is suggested as likely that ultimately the fusion of these lines will be accomplished, the resultant nation-wide railway system being run as a Government concern with management free from all political interference.

Broadly speaking, there is a great deal to be said for the amalgamation of all the Home lines into one big undertaking. Such a move, indeed, would appear to be the logical sequence to the elaborate grouping programme already carried through. As yet, the time is hardly ripe for a big adventure of this sort, and it is probable that for some years the existing group arrangement will continue. Eventually, however, Britain will have, in all probability, a very similar railway policy to that of New Zealand. There is no suggestion, of course, that the grouping scheme already operative has failed, or that any of the railways concerned have in any way neglected their opportunities. Complete railway unification is inevitable ultimately—a fact to which leading railwaymen like Mr. William Whitelaw, the Chairman of the L. & N.E. line, have frankly given publicity.

In the new era, the Home railways will be much more than railways in the strict sense of the term. They will be comprehensive “transport-ways” engaging in every form of movement by land, sea and air. Already the group railways engage in road, sea and air movement to a considerable degree, and the co-ordination of transport systems thus effected is proving of the greatest value to one and all.