ABSTRACT
Contrary to the original expectation, the opening of Britain’s early railways had a more immediate impact on the pattern of passenger travel than it did on the goods traffic. With very few exceptions, whenever a new line was opened to traffic there was a spectacular increase in the number of persons travelling along the route served compared with the numbers previously using the road. After the opening of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway throughout its entire length on 18 June 1838 eleven times as many persons travelled by train as had previously gone by coach.1 Before the railway enabled the weavers and mechanics of Dundee to reach the seaside resort called the Ferry very few of them made the effort to reach it as the only means of travel was on foot or by one of the carriers’ slow moving carts. In seven months of 1839, however, not less than 61,876 thirdclass tickets were sold on this short line.2 By the mid-1830s parliamentary committees examining proposals for railway Bills took it to be axiomatic that, once a railway was opened, the number of persons travelling by train would be at least double the number who had previously travelled on foot, by coach or by any other road vehicle. The Leicester and Swannington Railway, which in the first half of 1843 gained only 5.1 per cent of its revenue from passengers, was an exception to the general rule that the first use to which the new railways was put was greatly to augment the volume of passenger transport.3 In England and Wales as a whole there was a 20-fold increase in the number of persons travelling by train over the 30 years 1840-70.4
If at first some railways, exploiting travellers’ preference for the speediest means of transport, charged the first-class passengers more than they would have had to pay making the same journey inside a coach, and the second-class passengers more than they would have been charged for an outside seat, it was not long before a majority of the companies decided to give railway fares the competitive edge over the charges for coach travel. Between Leeds and York, for example, the fare charged for a seat on the outside of a coach was 3s for a 31 mile journey occupying four hours. For the first few months the fare for the 80-minute train journey was 3s 6d, but this was soon afterwards lowered to 2s 6d to give the passenger by railway the advantages both of time and of cost.5 It was a policy which contributed handsomely to the rapid increase in the volume of rail traffic. Initially also a cautious
view was taken about the possibility of allowing children to travel at less than the full fare. In October 1831 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, while allowing infants under three years of age to travel free, refused any concessions to children above that age.6 At the same time, however, the Canterbury and Whitstable line allowed children under twelve to travel at two thirds of the adult fare and it was this policy of concessions to the under-12s which became generally adopted.7 By the early 1840s half fares for the under-12s were generally available, making family rail travel more widespread and still further augmenting the volume of passenger traffic.
