Facsimile PDF - Online Library of Liberty

There only remains, then, the question of filling the
present trains much more full of passengers. Tho avernge
number at present carried in a train is no doubt remarkably
small. In 181% Nr. Galt stated that the average number of
pctssengera carried by each train wcw 71, or, including seasonticket
holders, probably about 74. Excluding, however, the
summer excursion traffic, ho thought that tho real averago of
the ordinary traffic was not more than 50 per train, rtnd the
chief ground of all his plans was tho suggestion that, instusd
of 50, an average of 150 passengers might casily bo carried in
each train, without any npprecisblo estra cost.
The nclvocutes of low fares seem elltirely tu forgot that
n train must be provided to accornlnocl:itu tl~e I~~ILS~IIIU~II,
rather than the mini1nu1u, number of passengers. l'assenger
traffic is a most fluctuating nnd uncertnh thing; tho stato
of the weather, the season of the year, tlm days of tho meek,
the occurrence of markets, fairs, races, public meotings,
holidays, excursions, and events of all kinds, affect the
numbers who travel by any train, and it is not within tlm
powers of human wisdom so to vary the capacity of tho trains
from day to day that there shall always be sumcient accommodation,
and little to spare. The difficulty is much increased
by the necessity of consulting the comfort of p:tssengors by
providing three classes of carriages, distinct couptwtmonts
for smokers and non-smokers, and especially tlL,ro"9h-curricrlle.r
betweon important towns. A train thus contains, say, from
five to twelve different kinds of passengers requiring divtiuct
accommodation, and any passengers reasonably complain if
they cannot find room in the kind of carriago for which thsy
have paid, or if they have another class of fellow-passengers
thrust upon them.
If it were the custom of railway companies to aim at
filling their trains, the passengers would have to be almost
indiscriminately mingled together ; smokers and nun-smokers
would have to come to terms, through-carriages would have
to be abolished, and, in fact, all that renders railway travelling
tolerable would have to be relinquished. Moreover, when
any accidental circumstance gave rise to a pressure of traffic,