Cheap Travel Facilities.

Railway passenger travel at Home is now cheaper and easier than ever, thanks to the introduction of a new fares programme, embodying wider facilities and important fare reductions. Public support has justified the railways' policy of lower return fares to such an extent that it has been found possible to make the third-class penny-a-mile, return-within-a-month facility a permanent feature. Hitherto known as the “Summer Ticket,” this facility is now named the “Monthly Return Ticket,” and its advantages have been still further increased.

First and third-class monthly tickets are now available for use on the outward and return journeys any day within one calendar month from date of issue. They also admit of break of journey in either direction, and in many cases, where two or more railways operate in the same territory, the tickets are available on the return journey by alternative routes. Minimum fares for these tickets are 3s. 9d. first-class and 2s. 6d. third-class, except on the Southern line where the minima are 7s. 6d. and 5s. respectively.

As an experiment Home railway first-class cheap fares have been cut by ten per cent., and their basis is now fifty per cent. over the corresponding third-class cheap fares. This applies to monthly return, cheap day, excursion, and other reduced fares. Tourist tickets issued between 1st May and 31st October will be reduced by 26 per cent. first-class and 18 per cent. third-class. These tickets will have an availability of three months, and will be subject to minima of 22s. 6d. first-class and 15s. third-class.

The Home railways cannot claim to offer the cheapest travel in Europe. This distinction falls to the State Railways of Finland, where a thousand-mile journey may be undertaken for approximately 34s. second-class, and only 23s. third-class.

Finland is one of the most interesting of countries, and her State Railway system covers a length of 4,000 miles. The first railway was opened between Helsingfors and Hameenlina in 1862.