BRITISH RAILWAYS AND THE WAR
1916 the Board of Trade issued an appeal as follows:—
CHRISTMAS TRAINS.
JOURNEYS OF REAL URGENCY ONLY.
The Board of Trade desire to urge upon the general public the necessity of avoiding all travelling by train at Christmas time.
No journey which is NOT of REAL URGENCY should be undertaken, and the public are warned that the passenger train service during the Christmas Holidays will be greatly reduced in comparison with previous years, and that the Railway Companies cannot undertake to CONVEY PASSENGERS to ANY PARTICULAR DESTINATION. The Military Authorities propose to restrict the leave of soldiers stationed in this country, and, in the interests of the nation, civilians should regard themselves as under a like restraint. Soldiers on leave from the front will be given a preference over other passengers.
The increase in passenger fares did not apply to workmen's tickets, season tickets, traders' tickets, or zone tickets, nor to the local traffic in towns. Moreover, shortly afterwards the Board of Trade announced that the increase of 50 per cent. would not apply to tickets issued to relatives desiring to visit wounded soldiers or sailors in hospitals, on producing the hospital authority to do so. The rise was generally borne with equanimity, but it caused some protests. One deputation appealed to the Railway Executive Committee for consideration in the matter of railway fares for watering-places and health resorts. The deputation was told that, so far from the increase
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