Passenger traffic now reaches peak point on the Home railways. August is the most popular holiday period of the whole year, and during the Bank Holiday millions of vacationists travel by rail between London and the other principal cities and the long chain of seaside resorts scattered among the four group systems. This year it was anticipated that, because of the tremendous rush to London for the Coronation, the seaside Bank Holiday bookings would be somewhat adversely affected. So far as advance bookings show, however, there will this summer again be witnessed an enormous Bank Holiday exodus, which will make tremendous demands upon the operating department.

Excursion travel is a feature at this season. While specially low fares are quoted for this class of transport, the carriage stock generally employed affords a very high standard of comfort, and the Home railways are constantly adding to the already very large stock of excursion train vehicles. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway has recently put into traffic eleven new light-weight excursion trains, in which the use of high-tensile steel, welding, and articulated bogies has effected a reduction of 55 tons in weight as compared with a standard ten-car train. Seating eighteen first-class and 511 third-class passengers, the new trains, also, are forty feet shorter overall than their predecessors. Each ten-car train is formed of five two-car units. By joining each pair of carriages together by means of a single four-wheel bogie, on which the ends of both carriages are mounted, there is a saving of five bogies, or twenty wheels per train. The body of each coach is built integral with the underframe, forming one structure. The complete train of ten carriages weighs only 245 tons, and this saving in weight naturally results in valuable operating economies. The saving of forty feet in length is of great advantage at busy periods, being of assistance in station working and in storage siding operation.