The railway conference

IN the course of his presidential address at the annual session of the Indian Railway Conference Association held at Simla last week, Lloyd Jones, Agent and Chief Engineer of the Nizam’s Guaranteed State Railway, pleaded for cooperation between the Railways and the public as well as between them and the local authorities. In doing so, he referred to certain interests that were common to all three and said that mutual cooperation would benefit them all. He stated that cheap transport was essential to all as it would facilitate trade and add to the income of the Railways. The public took a great deal of interest in the matter of rates and fares, and these were fixed by the Railways after considering certain important factors. It is the function of the railway officer, he said, “to apportion the charges over traffic so that the burden of payment is equally distributed. He adjusts the charge to the capacity to pay; the more accurately the charges are levied in relation to the capacity of the traffic to bear them, the less will be burden of the charge. In effect, the rate maker has to consider how best to collect the average rate. He is not concerned with the cost of working except to ensure that the freight is not less than the cost of the service rendered.” It is evident that Jones were trying to justify the highly anomalous condition of the present system of rating which confers special advantages on certain trades and interests and imposes serious disadvantages on certain indigenous interests. If Jones expects the public to cooperate with the Railways in maintaining the present unfair and injurious system, he is entirely mistaken.