Orders of the Day — Railway Fares.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 7 May 1919.

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Photo of Mr James Gilbert Mr James Gilbert , Southwark Central

I am very sorry to have heard the speech of the hon. Gentleman who has just replied to the Board of Trade. I was hopeful, when I heard the speeches of the Mover and Seconder of this Resolution, that we might have had a more sympathetic and hopeful speech from him. I think he knows how strongly is the feeling outside this House amongst the travelling public that something should be done in order to get us back to pre-war conditions. I would suggest to him that if he could have given us some facts as to what the railway companies are doing at the present time in order to get back to pre-war conditions, it would have been much more helpful than telling us what the railway companies have done during the War. We all recognise their difficulties during the War. We all know what they did to assist our men on the front. But that is all past and a good many months have elapsed since the Armistice was signed. Surely the Railway Executive Committee must have considered this matter very urgently since the Armistice was signed. The railway shops which were used for munitions have surely now been taken back for railway work. Could not the Government give us some facts as to how many locomotives and carriages the railway shops propose to turn out this year? I hope they are working at high pressure in order to turn out as many as they can. I am speaking as a London Member, and I want to endorse what my right hon. Friend the Member for Deptford has said. We in London specially feel this question of the increase of fares. There is probably no other place in the country where there is so much suburban traffic for workers of all kinds, and I do not think there is anywhere where the workers—many of them people with fixed wages—have felt the increase of fares more. This 50 per cent. has been a very great tax on the suburban residents in London. Before the War nearly all the railway companies around London advertised cheap fares in order to attract people to live in the suburbs. Many people, like Government employés, school teachers, and others, whose salaries were more or less fixed, went to these suburban places. Many of them bought houses, either through building societies or in some other way, and their railway fare was put down as part of their annual expense on the income which they received. This 50 per cent. increase on the ordinary fares and on the season-ticket rates, is a great hardship which these people have suffered during the War. We were hopeful in London that at any rate something would be done, that if the whole of the 50 per cent. could not be taken off the Government would at any rate do something in order to relieve the burden on these people. My hon. Friend, in reply, talked about the amount of money that the Government would lose if cheap fares were granted.