Report of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade on the London, Worcester, and Wolverhampton, | Page 8

none of the objections to the accumulation of
slow mineral trains upon the main passenger line, and would allow of
no access by lateral tramroads, without cutting up the main line by
crossings. It is represented also that the waggons of the wide gauge are,
from their greater weight and size, ill adapted for the purposes of the
mineral traffic.
The arrangement in question, of an additional double line of rails, is
equally proposed by the line from Birmingham to Shrewsbury, via
Dudley and Wolverhampton, which traverses the same mineral district,
and must be considered as, to a great extent, identified with the Tring
or London and Birmingham scheme.
The case of the Shrewsbury line, as compared with the competing
scheme of the Grand Junction Company, which stops at
Wolverhampton, depends very much on the same arguments, of the
importance of opening up the Staffordshire mineral field by Railway
communication, which have been already adduced in favour of the

Tring line; and the objections to it on the part of the Canal and other
interests are of the same description. The arrangements proposed for
supplying the local wants of the district are also of the same nature, and
the plans and sections of the two lines correspond, so that the portion
between Dudley and Wolverhampton is common to the two; the
understanding being that, if both are sanctioned by Parliament, this
portion is to be made by the Shrewsbury Company, and used on
equitable conditions by the other Company.
The Great Western scheme, on the other hand, introduces a different
gauge and different arrangements, and adopts a different line between
Dudley and Wolverhampton, so that its existence is hardly compatible
with that of the Shrewsbury scheme.
For the reasons stated we are therefore of opinion that, for the purpose
of accommodating the great mineral district of Staffordshire, the
combined scheme of the Tring and Shrewsbury lines is preferable to
any other that has been proposed.
The Tring scheme is equally superior for the local accommodation of
Kidderminster, Stourbridge, and Stourport, to which it gives better
stations, by pursuing a lower level along the bottom of the valleys, and
it admits of more easy extension towards Leominster, Ludlow, and the
West. Between Worcester and London it accommodates, as we have
already seen, a larger population; and therefore, on the whole, both in
these respects and in the important particular of the gauge, it seems to
us to be in itself decidedly preferable to the competing Great Western
scheme.
It remains to be seen whether there are any other considerations which
might modify this conclusion.
It is urged, that the concession of this line to a Company promoted by
the London and Birmingham Company, will constitute a great
monopoly, extending over a vast extent of country, while, by giving it
to the Great Western Company, a competition would be introduced,
from which the Public might derive benefit. On the other hand, it may
be said that, to allow the Great Western Company to embrace, by their

influence, not only the whole western communications of the island,
but also the whole of South Wales, and the whole district up to
Worcester and Birmingham, would be to establish a monopoly much
more gigantic than that of the London and Birmingham. This latter
monopoly would also be more obviously objectionable, inasmuch as an
interest adverse to the Public would at once be established if the line
from London to Worcester and Wolverhampton, and that from Bristol
to Birmingham, were to be in the same hands, and upon the same wide
gauge, as the line now proposed through South Wales. The
accommodation of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, South Wales, and
the important districts lying to the west of the present lines of Railway,
will evidently, at no distant period, require not only a wide-gauge
Railway along the Southern coast, to place them in communication
with London, but also a narrow-gauge Railway to place them in direct
and unbroken communication, through Birmingham, with the
manufacturing districts and the great Railway system of the rest of the
kingdom.
The extension of such a Railway would be greatly facilitated by the
establishment of the narrow gauge, and of an interest independent of
the Great Western, in the Worcester district, and, on the other hand,
would be greatly impeded if that district were assigned to the Great
Western interest and to the wide gauge.
In respect therefore of the general question of monopoly, it appears to
us that nothing would be gained by substituting that of the Great
Western for that of the London and Birmingham, which is the only
alternative; at the same time, if the latter Company had shown no
disposition to meet the fair demands of the Public by a reduction of
rates, and to obviate the objections of monopoly by