GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

196 THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE OF INDIA
and 131 in 1930-31. Their topics for discussion
embraced que~tions like the opening of new stations. provision
of lavatories in servants' compartments. arrangements
in connection with fairs. refreshments and
drinking water facilities. overcrowding In trains,
reduction in fares, and so on.
The other institution that has been injecting democracy
into railways. perhaps in homoeopathic doses. is the
Rates Advisory Committee. first established in 1926. It is
only in connection with rates that this committee examineiS
complaints from the customers of the railway companies.
During the last few years13 cases of rates bearing on the
following subjects have been heard by this body: :1. undue
preference. 2. unreasonable rates. 3. terminals.
4. packing. and 5. facilities to be provided by the compames
In accordance with the Indian Railways Act of
1890.
The Indian railways may now be placed in the perspective
of the railway-world from another view-point.
namely, that of tr~c. That India is a great
railway-power--one of the very greatest in. this field....;.
would appear from the international statisti,cs of passe,ngers
and goods carried by the world's railways every year.
First. then, as regards the number of passengers who
may be said to have travelled at least one kilometre in
1927, the leading countries of the world may be placed
in the following order in two different groups:
13 Fori930·31 e:e *he Rep~'t (1932), voJ. I, pp. 7.8.