THE BRITISH RAILWAY GROUPS The Four Groups.—This section describes briefly the part which is played by the railway systems of Great Britain in the economic life of its inhabitants. It will he shown that the serv ices rendered by the several railway companies are concomitant with the present organization and distribution of industry. At tention will be mainly given to the four main-line railways of Great Britain, which were formed as a result of the Railways Act of 1921, namely, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (L.M.S.R.), the London and North Eastern Railway (L.N.E.R.), the Great Western Railway (G.W.R.) and the Southern Railway (S. R.). Besides these, there are the London underground rail ways and Metropolitan Railway (all of which, since 1933, are amalgamated with the local omnibus, tramway, and motor-coach services in the London Passenger Transport Board), as well as a number of small railways in other parts of the country. Of the numerous classes of traffic carried by the four main line railways, the distinction between the carriage of passengers and of freight is fundamental. Contrary to popular expectation the latter is con siderably more important, if measured in terms of revenue, than the former. In 1927, for example, the gross receipts earned by the railways for the carriage of passengers was approximately £70 million, whereas that earned for the carriage of freight, in cluding mails, parcels and other articles carried in passenger trains, amounted to nearly £130 million. For this reason the car riage of freight will first be considered.
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century Great Britain has been under the sustained influence of those economic changes consequent upon the industrial revolution. These changes have been world-wide and can be described as a tendency towards the specialization of economic function, each person or group of persons producing or assisting in the production of some one par ticular article. Thus, whereas prior to these changes compara tively small areas were self-contained units, so far as their essen tial requirements were concerned, since that period there have developed large masses of population employed in industry and manufacture who are dependent for their existence upon com modities carried from distant lands, the sufficient growth or pro duction of these commodities being, for all practical purposes, im possible near at hand. At the same time in other parts of the world are vast tracts of country whose inhabitants devote their entire energies to the pursuit of some particular form of agri culture. Between these two extremes are an indefinite number of producing areas all specializing in greater or lesser degrees. But
in every case, not only must the surplus and specialized produce be carried away and distributed to those regions which are in need of them, but in exchange the requirements of those producers must be reclaimed from lands suited to the production of those requirements. Thus, an outstanding feature of the present indus trial age is man's complete reliance upon long distance transport, whether it be by railway or by ocean going vessel; and the greater the degree of specialization of function, the greater the degree of his dependence.
In so far as the economic changes which have been taking place during the last hundred years have transformed Great Britain into a region, the inhabitants of which have become engaged very largely upon the manufacture and production of goods which are exported abroad in exchange for food and raw materials, her railways are engaged in the carriage of freight which is destined for export, or which has been imported. In this sense the railway systems of Great Britain should be looked upon as providing an essential link in the larger chain of communications by land and sea which enables not only the production of mines and factories to find their way into distant foreign markets, but in return, food and raw materials into the homes and factories of the land. In so far as Great Britain still produces to an important extent what is required by her own inhabitants, the railway systems are occupied in internal trade. Certain traffic that may appear to belong to the latter category, however, is in reality a part of the export trade; for example, the bringing together of raw materials and coal to be used in the manufacture of goods destined for ex port. Furthermore, shipment traffic is not in every case for ex port proper, a considerable quantity being carried to other ports of Great Britain. To illustrate the importance of this latter type of traffic, it may be cited that during the year 1925, 53% of the coal bought for use in Greater London came by rail; but of the 47% that came by sea, much the greater part also originated at British mines. The average length of rail haul for landsale coal during the month of January 1925 was 54.51m. whilst that for shipment was 24.26 miles. This brings out in sharp contrast the very different nature of the simple carriage of coal for export, from mine to port, and the wide distribution of landsale coal, not only to each and every gas works and factory, but to every coal consuming householder in the country.