Railways Under Government Control.

In accordance with pre-arranged plans, the Home railways were taken over by the Government at the beginning of the conflict, through the Ministry of Transport, with the Railway Executive Committee as the pivot of movement. The Committee comprises six members—Sir Ralph Wedgwood (Chairman), Sir James Milne (G.W.R.), Mr. C. H. Newton (L. & N.E.R.), Mr. Frank Pick (London Transport), Mr. Gilbert S. Szlumper (Southern) and Sir William Wood (L.M. & S.). This move is on similar lines to what happened in 1914. At that time, however, there were over a hundred individual railways in Britain, whereas to-day, as a consequence of grouping, the railways controlled comprise only ten separate undertakings, as follows: the four main-line groups, the London Passenger Transport Board, the East Kent Light Railway, the Kent and East Sussex Light Railway, the King's Lynn Docks and Railway, the Mersey Railway, and the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway.

Actually, the change from private to Government control does not make any really marked differences to working methods. It simply assures that national needs have preference on all occasions, and that the railways, through co-ordinated management, are operated with a maximum of efficiency in the common cause. Railwaymen, because of the importance of their job, are not being released wholesale for military and naval service. Numbers of younger railway men, not engaged on essential work, have been permitted to join the colours, while in the case of skilled men in the operating and engineering departments, many have taken up service with the Transportation Troops. By degrees, railwaymen in some grades will doubtless be liberated, especially younger employees, and their places taken by older men and temporary women workers.

During the 1914–1918 struggle, women workers were a common sight on passenger station platforms, in offices and other railway premises. Female engine-drivers and signalmen, however, never were seen in Britain. In France women were engaged in many railway jobs, and page 43 on both sides of the Channel there was universal admiration for the manner in which these temporary employees filled the gaps created by the release of men for other services.