Report of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade on the London, Worcester, and Wolverhampton, | Page 7

traffic of Manchester and Liverpool with Bristol,
and indeed with the whole of the West of England, as a very
inconsiderable proportion of the goods actually dispatched require to be
carried in transit through Bristol. The same remark applies to the trade
of the Potteries with the West of England; of Bristol and Gloucester
with the Midland Counties, where the imports of these ports now meet
those of Hull and Liverpool; of Worcester, Kidderminster, &c. with
Liverpool, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, and of various other branches of
traffic that might be specified.
As a proof of the importance of some of the branches of traffic that
would be thus inconvenienced by a change of gauge at Birmingham, it
may be mentioned that single carriers already send as much as 20,000
tons a year in transit through Birmingham, by the Birmingham and
Gloucester Railway, and that the total quantity thus sent is estimated at
from 50,000 to 100,000 tons per annum, and is considered to be
capable of great increase, the line of communication having been only
very recently completed by the opening of the Bristol and Gloucester
Railway, and the development of the traffic having since been greatly
impeded by the interruption of the gauge at Gloucester, and other
circumstances.
With the low rates which it is now proposed to establish on coals, salt,
agricultural produce, and other heavy goods, the amount of traffic that
may be expected to pass from the west in transit through Birmingham,

and vice versa, if the advantage of an unbroken communication can be
secured, will be exceedingly great. It has been represented to us that
Droitwich alone would send upwards of 250,000 tons of salt annually.
The same observation applies as to the coal traffic from the Midland
Counties through Rugby to Oxford. The whole of the extensive district
between Rugby and Oxford, where coal is now usually at a very high
price, may be cheaply supplied by Railway; an object of great
importance, which could be only partially attained if the impediment of
an interruption of gauge were allowed to exist at Rugby.
Another important consideration which seems to point to Bristol rather
than Birmingham, as a proper point for the interruption of the gauge,
and which has been strongly urged upon us by carriers, merchants, and
practical men acquainted with the course of traffic, is, that Bristol, like
London, is a great emporium and shipping port, through which a
comparatively small portion of the goods which enter by Railway
require to be forwarded in transit without repacking and assortment.
The facilities for water communication with Bristol also give the public
a better alternative than they would enjoy elsewhere of avoiding the
inconvenience of the change of gauge, and thus afford the best possible
security, that if the interruption be fixed there, the Railway Companies
interested will use every possible effort to reduce the inconvenience to
a minimum.
For all these considerations, we can have no hesitation in expressing
our preference, on public grounds, to the alternative that proposes to fix
the break of gauges at Bristol and Oxford, rather than at Birmingham
and Rugby.
Another important advantage offered by the London and Birmingham
scheme, and intimately connected with the question of the gauge, is the
arrangement by which it is proposed to lay down an additional double
line of rails throughout the mineral district, to be devoted entirely to the
accommodation of the mineral traffic.
We have already seen that the production of iron of the district requires
a continued interchange of coals, lime, ironstone, and other raw

materials among the different mines and works, to the extent of about
4,000,000 tons annually.
It is only by obtaining ready access to the Railway by means of short
branches or tramroads from those mines and works, that the benefits
contemplated from the introduction of Railway communication can be
fully realized. But if this is to be the case, and if any considerable
portion of this immense local traffic is to pass by Railway, it is
manifest that the rails so used could not be rendered available without
extreme danger and inconvenience for the general traffic. Even the
export trade alone in coals and iron could not be conducted with
convenience upon the same line of rails as the passenger traffic, and
would require a separate line of rails in order to allow the waggons
passing and repassing from the different works within the district to
reach without interruption some principal station at its extremity, where
trains of the proper size could be formed and dispatched to distant
points. This object would be very imperfectly fulfilled by the plan
proposed by the wide-gauge Railway, of laying down an extra rail, or
pair of rails, on the narrow gauge, inside the principal rails, which
would, in fact, obviate